


The Spectacular Dancing Spider Pt. II

by WolfMeister



Series: Spectacular Dancing Spider [2]
Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alien Bar, Aliens, Angst, Attempted Murder, Cannibalism, Child Abuse, College, Crime Fighting, Cults, Daily Bugle, Empire State University, F/F, F/M, Fights, First Dates, Guilt, Identity Reveal, Journalism, Long, M/M, Making Out, Murder, New York City, Norman Osborn's A+ parenting, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker is Still Spider-Man, Pining, San Francisco, Slice of Life, Spidersona, Star Trek References, Stargazing, Symbiote - Freeform, Symbiote OC, Tangled (2010) References, Xenophilia, goblin serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2020-12-16 11:24:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 45,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21035465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfMeister/pseuds/WolfMeister
Summary: Continuation from my other very very long fic about my spidersona because there is no planned endI'm just posting this because its fun tbh





	1. Chapter 1

Jazzy is about to succumb to the blissful lure of sleep when her phone goes off, two tones overlapping each other, an alarm and her usual ringtone when someone calls her. Jazzy groans and turns over, grabbing her phone from its charger and answering the call.

“What?” she says, too annoyed to be polite.

“Jazzy, turn on the news,” Eddie tells her, just as crass.

“Can’t I after I sleep?”

“It’s important,” he states firmly.

Jazzy groans again. “Fine.”

“Wake up Harry if you have to.”

“That important?” Jazzy wonders as she swings herself out of the plush bed, immediately heading to Harry’s bedroom.

“Yes, that important.”

Jazzy enters Harry’s room to find him talking on the phone as well, but most likely with Peter and not having just been forced into full consciousness. “Eddie says we gotta watch the news,” she states, sitting down on the couch and grabbing the remote.

“Why?” Harry responds.

“It’s just that important apparently,” she says, then switches her phone to speaker, “right Eddie?”

“Yes.”

Harry joins her on the couch, putting his own phone on speaker. “Say hi, Peter,” he says.

“Hey, Jazzy,” Peter’s voice responds.

“Hi Pete,” Jazzy says, switching the channel to one of the news outlets. There’s a shot from a helicopter circling around San Quentin Prison. “This isn’t interesting, Eddie.” Then the helicopter gets to the other side. “Oh, shit, nevermind.”

“Uh-huh,” Eddie replies.

“Oh my god,” Harry mutters.

“What?” Peter asks.

Half of one of the prison walls is blown away, rubble tumbling down the cliff with red glistening against the bricks. Jazzy knows immediately that it’s blood. Her eyes slowly travel to the bottom of the screen.

_BREAKING NEWS: INFAMOUS SERIAL KILLER CLETUS KASADY ESCAPES FROM SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON._

Scrolls across the screen against a bright red background. Jazzy’s breath hitches and it takes her a moment to realize the TV is muted.

“Cletus Kasady got out,” Harry says in response to Peter’s question.

“Oh my god,” Peter says.

“Yeah,” Harry breathes.

Jazzy unmutes the TV. “--according to the guards at the prison. For those of you just tuning in, Cletus Kasady has broken out of San Quentin State Penitentiary as of an hour ago. There were several casualties of both guards and other prisoners. A warning to our more sensitive viewers, we are about to play actual footage from the security cameras at the time of Kasady’s escape.”

“Weren’t you there earlier?” Jazzy asks Eddie.

“Yeah,” Eddie confirms. “I left thirty minutes before he got out.”

“Benii3itowoo,” Jazzy mutters.

The footage changes, switching to a black and white video that Jazzy assumes is from the security cameras. At first it just shows Kasady sitting in his cell, apparently muttering to himself. A guard enters the screen, holding a plate of food in one hand as he unlocks the first gate to Kasady’s cell. A grotesque grin spreads across the murderer’s face. Kasady stands up and faces the guard. His straight jacket rips, and he grabs the guard by the neck through the bars. Flashing lights fill the area as the prison alarms go off. Kasady snaps the guard’s neck, dropping the body as his own is enveloped in what appears to be some sort of slime materializing from nowhere. The material transforms his features, increasing his height and turning his face into something similar to Venom’s. He becomes thinner than Venom and lighter in color with black instead of white streaks. Kasady, or rather Venomous Kasady, rips off the bars of his cell and lifts the dead guard, biting his head off. He dashes out into the rest of the prison. The video ends and changes to a newscaster sitting behind a desk, worry etched across her face.

“Why the fuck did he look kind of like Venom?” Jazzy asks, turning the TV off.

Eddie makes a strangled sort of noise. “That’s what I’m trying to find out. It shouldn’t be possible.” Jazzy hears a low rumble come from his side of the call. “I want you two to only go outside if absolutely necessary, especially you Jazzy.”

“I agree,” Peter states.

“Yeah, I’ve got no problem with that,” Harry replies.

“I do,” Jazzy protests. “You both know me, I can’t just..._not_ do anything about this!”


	2. Chapter 2

Dancing Spider bounds across the city, searching for any sign of Cletus Kasady. Eddie’s voice continuously rings in her head, _“I don’t care how strong you think you are, you are not stronger than he is.”_ Jazzy huffs in frustration.

_I’ll prove him wrong._

She searches for him everywhere, in highly populated areas and on the outskirts of the city. Jazzy sighs, not finding him and deciding to stop for a rest by a nearly empty parking garage. She rests on the wall, arms resting on her thighs as she looks around her. Jazzy spots a dark figure walking across the street, something dripping off his hands. She drops to the ground and bounds across into an alleyway. She crawls along the wall, trailing after the person.

“Seems we’re being followed, Red,” he mutters. “What should we do about that?” He halts and Jazzy does as well. “What a great idea.” He turns around and Jazzy can clearly see the face of the man she’s been searching for. “Hello, you must be the Dancing Spider Eddie’s told me about.”

“Yeah, and you’re Cletus Kasady.”

He spreads his arms and grins. “You here to take me back in?”

“Why else would I be here?”

“I don’t know, maybe you want to join me in the fun.”

Jazzy drops from the wall, landing on her toes. “No way in hell.”

“Have it your way, I’ll have fun no matter what.”

His red symbiote wraps around his body before he lunges at her, fingers elongating into talons. Dancing Spider flips to the side, dodging the attack, while kicking her leg out, connecting with the solid mass of the abdomen. Jazzy stumbles as she lands, pain shooting through her foot. Kasady turns toward her with a sickening, teeth filled grin and grabs her neck, mouth opening and coming closer to her face.

**“Such a delicious looking snack,”** he says, voice raspier and higher than Venom’s. It runs chills through Jazzy’s core. The jaw opens, unhinging and blocking off all light from Jazzy’s face.

**“Let her go.”**

Kasady’s head pulls away, jaws closing a hair away from Jazzy’s nose. He turns around and Jazzy looks over his shoulder and finds Venom coming closer. **“Hey Daddy,” **Kasady greets.

“What?” Jazzy says. They both ignore her.

**“Put her down,”** Venom growls.

**“No.”**

Jazzy wrenches herself free from Kasady’s grip as Venom attacks him, black claws ripping through red shoulders. Jazzy scrambles to move away, but a red tendril snakes out and grabs her leg, dragging her to the ground. Kasady knocks Venom back, slamming Jazzy against the wall and rakes his claws across her abdomen. Jazzy shouts in pain as Kasady bolts, disappearing in an alleyway, cackling.

Jazzy collapses, hands weakly pressing against her abdomen. She can feel her heart pounding, feeling the pain pulse with it. Her eyes grow wide as blue seeps through her clothes and onto the concrete. _Oh gods, oh gods._ Venom comes over and scoops her into its arms.

**“We got you.”**

“I need...I need,” Jazzy mumbles, unable to form a coherent thought.

**“We will take you to Dan.”**

“How...how do you know him?”

One of Venom’s large hands come up and press down on Jazzy’s wound. Jazzy feels herself shaking as a cold sweat breaks out across her forehead. **“Because,”** Venom says, face exposing its host, “he’s our doctor too.”

Jazzy stares, wondering if she’s hallucinating. “Eddie. You’re Venom.” Her head drops backward and she stares up at the stars. The bright lights start spinning and Jazzy feels like she might pass out.

“Stay with me, Jazz,” Eddie says, shaking her slightly as his gait quickens. “We’re going to get you help.”

“I’m sure you will,” she mutters, lids feeling heavy. Jazzy looks down at her stomach and sees Venom’s hand still pressed there, her blood oozing up between its fingers.   
She shivers.

Jazzy dozes in and out of consciousness as Eddie carries her down the surprisingly empty streets. At some point Jazzy hears Eddie talking on the phone with Dan, presumably. Eddie or Venom jostles her every once in awhile until they reach a row of townhouses. Eddie walks up to one of the doors and knocks. There’s an almost immediate answer.

“Doctor Dan,” Jazzy mumbles. “Nice place.”

“Come in,” Dan says, stepping aside. Eddie enters and some part of Jazzy wishes she was more lucid to admire the place. “Set her on the couch.” Eddie does as he’s told and Jazzy grunts as she’s put down.

“Where’s Annie?” Eddie asks.

“In the kitchen.”

“Who’s Annie?” Jazzy asks, gasping as Venom’s hand comes away from her stomach. She can feel her heart in her wounds again. “N-n-no,” she breathes. She reaches up and rips her mask off, tossing it somewhere on the floor.

“Jazzy, you’re going to be fine,” Dan states, calm and collected. “It’s not deep enough to have punctured any organs.”

Jazzy looks over at him, then down at the blue blood gushing from her stomach. Her head hits the couch and everything turns black.


	3. Chapter 3

When Jazzy wakes up she finds her entire midsection wrapped in bandages, her iridescent belt torn to shreds on the floor next to her mask, and half her shirt is gone. Someone removed her shoes and set them aside. There’s a pile of clothes on the coffee table. Jazzy removes her blood encrusted gloves then tries to sit up.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Dan says, entering the living room with two mugs in his hands. “You might tear your stitches.”

“I want,” Jazzy points at the pile of clothes. “Where’s Eddie?”

“He went back to his place to check on something.”

“He’s Venom.”

“Yeah, I know.” Dan sets the steaming mugs down before handing Jazzy the pile of clothes. She takes them and then he helps her sit up. She flinches as hot pain shoots through her. “I can get Anne to help you change instead, she’s just upstairs.”

“No, it-it’s fine.”

“You sure?” Jazzy nods. “Okay.” Dan helps her out of the rest of her suit before Jazzy slips on the baggy tee and sweatpants. They join the rest of the pile on the floor. 

There’s a knock at the door and Dan gets up to answer it.

Eddie enters and he makes a beeline toward Jazzy. “I told you not to go after him,” Eddie states.

“Why does he have a symbiote?” Jazzy responds. “Why do you have a symbiote?”

“Carnage is…” Eddie trails off, suddenly looking rather sheepish. “Venom’s spawn. We didn’t know that we were, uh, I guess, pregnant when we visited him last, and V spawned while we were in San Quentin.”

“That’s why he called you Daddy.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, what happened?” Dan asks.

Eddie waves the question away. “Why’d you go after him?”

Jazzy sighs, head dropping back dramatically. “He’s been out for a couple of weeks, he’s been killing all these people, I couldn’t just stand by and let him continue killing people!” Jazzy shouts. “Why do you have a symbiote, and why does Flash know?”

“How do you know that Flash knows?”

“He called you Ven, and I realize now that he was actually talking to Venom. Now answer my questions, please.”

“Carlton Drake,” Eddie states. Dan picks up one of the mugs and hands it to Jazzy before leaving the room. “When I broke into the LIFE Foundation, I met V, and we bonded. Separated twice since then.” Eddie sits down by her feet. “You okay?”

“I feel sick, kinda feverish,” Jazzy replies. “Who’s Anne?”

“My ex,” Eddie says with a shrug. “Dan’s fiancée. She bonded with Venom once.”

Venom’s head materializes from Eddie’s shoulder, startling Jazzy. **“Then we kissed Eddie.”** Eddie rolls his eyes. Jazzy isn’t even surprised.

“You didn’t have to tell her that.”

**“Why wouldn’t we?”**

“Yeah, alright,” Eddie mumbles. “How long should it take to heal?”

“Several hours, maybe a day.” Jazzy sighs. “I should’ve listened, sorry.” Jazzy sips from her mug, pleased to find oolong tea. “Why were you there anyway?”

**“We tracked our child,”** Venom says. **“We had to find them.”**

“For the same reasons and then some that you did,” Eddie adds.

“You called him Carnage,” Jazzy states. “Kasady called his symbiote Red.” Eddie shrugs.

Dan comes back into the room chatting with a blonde woman who looks rather exasperated. “How are you feeling, Jazzy?” Dan asks.

“Feverish,” Jazzy states. “Tea’s good though, thanks.”

“Of course,” Dan says. “Oh, this is Anne.”

“Hi, Anne,” Jazzy greets, giving a weak wave. “Sorry for bleeding all over your couch.” Jazzy shifts and cringes as she twists her torso.

“Hi Jazzy,” she responds. “You aren’t bleeding over the couch, we put down towels before you got here.”

“Oh, that’s good to know.”

Anne turns to Eddie. “You have a kid?”

“Okay, Annie, it’s more complicated than that,” Eddie says as Venom rests its head on Eddie’s shoulder. “We didn’t even realize, if we did we wouldn’t have gone to talk to him.”

“Are there any other symbiotes running around?”

**“Yes,”** Venom grumbles as Eddie says, “No.”

Dan sighs and walks over to Jazzy, kneeling by the couch and lifting her shirt to look at the bandages. Anne puts her hands on her hips. “Where?” she asks.

Eddie mumbles something, looking away from everyone. Anne raises an eyebrow. “Our apartment. It doesn’t have a host, we’re just...watching over it.”

**“Raising it.”**

“You’re an alien right?” Jazzy wonders.

**“Yes.”**

“It might be better if they brought it here,” Dan says, redressing Jazzy’s wounds. “Just to make sure it doesn’t escape.”

“I agree,” Anne responds.

“Me too, but mostly because I wanna see it,” Jazzy adds.


	4. Chapter 4

Eddie comes back within the hour, Anne having left for work. He’s carrying a cylindrical glass container with slime shifting around inside, the same colors as Jazzy’s belt with black stripes shifting across the surface. Eddie sets the cylinder down on the table before sitting next to it.

“Anne left,” Jazzy tells him. “Dan’s still here.” She looks back at the creature moving about. “It’s beautiful.” Jazzy reaches out and presses her fingertips to the glass; the symbiote stretches tendrils out to meet them. Jazzy pulls her hand away as she breaks down into a coughing fit, bending over slightly.

Dan rushes into the room, holding more tea and passing them to Eddie. He puts a hand on Jazzy’s back. “You okay?” he asks once Jazzy’s coughing fit ends.

“I don’t feel good at all,” Jazzy mutters, body wracked with shivers. “Can I have a blanket?” A fuzzy blanket lands on her lap and Jazzy looks up, startled, to find a black tendril disappearing inside Eddie. “Thanks Venom.” Jazzy pulls it over her legs and toward her chest.

“I’m going to take your temperature,” Dan states. Jazzy nods. He gets up and disappears for a bit before quickly returning. The thermometer beeps and Dan huffs. “You should go to the hospital.”

“Why? I’ll heal fine.”

“Your temperature is forty degrees, and if your internal structure is more spider than human, then you probably can’t thermoregulate.”

“That’s too high, huh?”

“Yes.”

“If I can’t thermoregulate?”

“You’ll overheat and die.”

Jazzy shivers. “Okay, hospital.” Dan helps her up and a wave of nausea rolls through her. She stumbles and falls, feeling like her feet slipped out from under her. Eddie catches her. “Thanks.” She slings her arm around Dan’s shoulders and he helps her out the door.

They walk as quick as Jazzy can manage to the hospital where Dan does a full check-up and a lab test. He also examines her wound closer. The lacerations are an ugly deep blue tinged with a light green. One of them is much too close to the bottom of her heart. Dan tells her it’s infected.

“Okay, so antibiotics will just take care of it, right?” Jazzy asks.

Dan bites his lip. “I’m afraid not,” he replies. “I’ve never seen anything like this, so I sent it to another lab, but the scientists there told me that the virus is alien in every sense of the word, and finding a vaccine will take months if not years.”

“So,” Jazzy says slowly, “what’s going to happen to me?”

Dan closes his eyes and leans back. “Nothing good. At worst, either if it’s the nature of the virus or because of the fever, you’ll probably die.”

Jazzy hangs her head and takes in a shaky breath. “At best?”

“It’ll go away on its own.”

Jazzy feels herself shaking, leg jumping up and down and denting the foot rest. “Can we go back now? Please don’t keep me in the hospital.”

“Okay,” Dan agrees. “You can stay at my place for a bit, so I can keep an eye on you.”

“Thank you, Doctor Lewis,” Jazzy breathes. The doctor leads Jazzy out of the hospital and takes her back to his and Anne’s place. Jazzy sits down on the couch next to 

Eddie typing away on his laptop.

“Everything okay?” Eddie asks, not bothering to look up.

“I might be dying,” Jazzy states, staring at the wall. She sees Eddie look over at her from her peripherals. “Wound’s infected with an alien virus.”

“An alien virus, from Carnage?”

“Don’t know where else it could've come from except Venom.”

“But I’m not sick,” Eddie states.

“You were when you first bonded with Venom,” Dan chimes in. “And if symbiotes are immune to the virus, then so would their host. I need to get back to work.”

“I was only sick because V was really hungry,” Eddie defends.

Dan leaves with a shrug.

“If symbiotes are immune, then I could just bond with one and I’d be cured, right?” Jazzy asks slowly.

“Probably,” Eddie replies. “But not everyone is compatible with symbiotes, and if you’re not compatible, you could die. Who would you even bond with?”

Jazzy points at the swirling symbiote in the glass cylinder. “If I’m dying anyway what does it matter?”

“You’ll have to eat a lot, almost constantly. Lots of tater tots and chocolate,” Eddie explains. “But you’d also have to eat people, and you’ve never killed.”

“I’ve come close.”

Eddie stares, then his eyes glaze over. “No, V, I know that but…She hasn’t thought it through.” Eddie sighs. “I didn’t really have a choice, did I?”

**“You did, Eddie, you wanted me to stay,”** the alien states, materializing from Eddie’s chest and blocking his laptop screen. Eddie opens his mouth to say something. **“We’re worried about our child,”** Venom tells Jazzy.

“What? I’m not a good match?” Jazzy jokes.

“Your emotions impact the symbiote,” Eddie states. “You’ll be more likely to act on those emotions, which isn’t always a good thing, just look at Kasady.”

“I’m not Kasady.”

**“No, but you’re angry.”**

Jazzy rolls her eyes. “Okay, so you don’t want me to. I’ll call Harry ask for his opinion.” Jazzy finds her phone on the table.

“I’m not saying I don’t want you to,” Eddie responds, “I’m saying you need to think about this more. You don’t even know for sure if you’re dying.”

“And you don’t know that I’ll survive without bonding,” Jazzy retorts. “And either way I am calling Harry.”

“That’s fine, do that.”

“I’m telling him about Venom.” Jazzy unlocks her phone and calls Harry. He picks up almost immediately. “Hey, man, sorry for not answering any of your texts.”

“Are you okay? Where the hell are you?” Harry nearly shouts.

“I’m...alive,” Jazzy states, looking down at her stomach. “I’m at my doctor’s house sitting next to Eddie and Venom, which sounds really weird but honestly isn’t the weirdest thing that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours.”

“So you’re not okay, what happened?”

“I, uh, I’ll tell you if you can come over, with our pets, preferably,” Jazzy says. “Uh,” she turns to Eddie, “what’s the address?” Eddie tells her and she passes it on to Harry.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Want me to bring anything?”

“Just my laptop,” Jazzy says. “Be safe.”

Harry is there quickly, entering the house and sitting on Jazzy’s other side putting Midna and Link on the floor. He stares at the colorful symbiote. “Where’s Venom?”

“Here,” Jazzy says, jerking a thumb toward Eddie. She lays down, head resting on Harry’s lap.

“That’s Eddie,” Harry states.

“Not just Eddie,” Venom says, curling around Eddie’s shoulders.

“Oh,” Harry responds after staring into Venom’s milky eyes for a moment. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He shifts his eyes down to Jazzy. “What happened?”

“I didn’t listen to Eddie and went after Kasady and he almost killed me,” Jazzy explains. “And now I’m infected with an alien virus and I’m probably gonna die unless I bond with that symbiote.”

“Then bond with it,” Harry states.

Jazzy rolls her eyes. “Eddie won’t let me.”

Eddie sighs heavily. “We didn’t say you couldn’t, but having to kill people to survive is something you really have to think about.”

Jazzy doesn’t respond, staring at the symbiote in its container, sticking against the area closest to Jazzy. She reaches her hand out again, this time forcing her fingers to stick to the glass as she brings it closer to her. She can feel Eddie’s eyes on her, but she ignores him. A pair of eyes form in the amorphous body, staring directly at her. Jazzy holds the gaze. She nearly drops the cylinder when an intense pain ricochets through her core. Venom catches it, setting its child back on the table.

“Jazzy?” Harry asks, leaning over her, face coming into her view.

Jazzy shakily lifts her shirt up, seeing the sickening green tinge crawling up toward her sternum. “It wasn’t nearly this bad before,” she says between labored breaths.

**“She only has another hour left, most likely,”** Venom announces. **“They work quick.”**

“Let her bond with it,” Harry says. Jazzy looks over to see Eddie’s reaction.

“The bonding process could kill her,” Eddie states.

“And this virus will kill me,” Jazzy growls. “I’ll take my fucking chances.”

Eddie and Venom stare at each other, not saying anything, as Eddie cradles the hostless symbiote in his hands, his laptop dark and abandoned on his knees. Venom tilts his head and Eddie sighs. “Anne’s gonna kill us.”

**“Most likely.”**

“Harry, you’re going to have to move.”

Jazzy sits up and Harry moves, sitting down on the floor. Midna immediately crawls onto his lap. Jazzy reaches down and scratches behind her ears before finding Link, picking him, and pressing a kiss to the puppy’s forehead. Link licks her chin.

“If I die--”

“You’ll be fine,” Harry interrupts.

“If I die,” Jazzy repeats, “take good care of Link. And I love you.”

Harry swallows hard. “I love you too.”

Jazzy turns to Eddie. “Thank you. Now open it.”

“You know,” Eddie says, “maybe we should ask Dan first.”

Jazzy sighs, feeling short of breath and much too hot. “Please, Eddie. I promise I’ll be a good partner to your kid.”

One of Venom’s tendrils snakes out and wraps around the silver cap of the container, easily twisting it off. Eddie angles the container’s opening toward Jazzy. The symbiote inside slowly moves forward, seeming to hesitate as it reaches the outside air. A few tendrils pull itself forward and out of the container. Jazzy holds her hand out and the symbiote crawls into her open palm. The symbiote feels cool and gelatinous, leaving a trail of moisture across her skin as it moves closer to her chest and face. The feeling soothes her fever, and Jazzy sighs with contentment. The pink and teal symbiote reaches her chest, spreading across her clavicles as a thicker tendril lifts up to her eye level. Jazzy feels a sense of calm wash over her. The white eyes blink into existence, staring at Jazzy before seeping into her skin. Jazzy feels it, like drinking a glass of cool water. Then it settles. She touches her chest where it was, then lifts her shirt again, removing the bandages, to see the lacerations across her stomach closing. The green slowly retreats, before disappearing completely.

“Thank you,” Jazzy breathes once her wounds are completely gone. She’s not sure if she’s talking to the symbiote or Eddie.

**‘You are welcome, Jazzy,’** a voice responds, high and rasping. **‘You seem to be a good host.’**

“I’m, uh, I’m glad.”

**‘You’re a little weak,’** the voice continues. **‘And I’m hungry.’**

“I can feel that,” Jazzy practically gasps as her stomach rumbles. “Food?” she says to Eddie with a sheepish smile.

“Yeah, I’ll get a bunch of pizza, what do you want on it?” Eddie replies.

“Just cheese,” Harry says. “I can pay if you want.”

“No, it’s alright,” Eddie returns. “Jazzy?”

“Pineapple on a few, ask for as much pineapple as possible, and extra cheese on the others. I don’t know how much I can eat.”

“Probably five large pizzas, minimum,” Eddie responds before standing up and pulling his phone out. Eddie walks into the kitchen.

“So, everything okay?” Harry wonders.

**‘As long as I eat soon.’**

“Yeah, yeah I think so.” Jazzy picks Link up and sets him on her lap.

**‘Can we eat it?’** the symbiote asks.

“No! No eating dogs or cats!” Jazzy exclaims. “They are creatures much better than any human.”

**‘It looks good though.’**

“Doesn’t matter, we aren’t eating him.”

“What’s its name?” Harry asks. Jazzy looks at him and furrows her brows. “Like, Venom has a name, I’m guessing Kasady’s does too.”

“Kasady’s is Carnage or Red, I guess,” Jazzy answers. “I don’t know, what is your name?”

**‘My name? Hmm...Anguish.’**

“Anguish?”

**‘Yes.’**

“Nice to meet you, Anguish,” Jazzy says, a small smile tugging at her lips. Her stomach grumbles again.

**‘Nice to meet you, Jazzy,’** Anguish parrots back. Jazzy gets a flash of Harry as he is now--pushing Midna around on his lap--in the front of her mind. **‘I’m assuming I can’t eat him either.’**

“No you can’t,” Jazzy agrees. “You can’t eat people that I like.” Jazzy feels a brief wash of disappointment come over her.

Eddie comes back into the room and claps his hands together. “Alright, pizza is on its way. How are you feeling Jazzy?”

“Just really hungry honestly. Anguish keeps asking if she can eat things.”

“Anguish, huh.”

“That’s what she told me.”

“Since when did Anguish become a she?” Harry wonders, looking up at Jazzy from the floor.

“She just...is,” Jazzy mutters. “I don’t know how else to explain it.”

“It’s the voice, yeah?” Eddie asks.

“Yeah.”

“Can I, uh, can I see her?” Harry asks rather tentatively. “I wanna know who’s sharing a body with my friend.”

“After the pizza gets here,” Eddie suggests. “Don’t want to freak out the pizza man.”

**‘Maybe I do.’**

“No, we really don’t,” Jazzy mumbles. “How much longer?” There’s a knock on the door. “Oh, would you look at that.” Jazzy feels Anguish squirm impatiently within her, somewhere near her gut. Eddie goes to the door, there’s a brief conversation, and then he returns with a very tall tower of pizza boxes balanced in his hands.

“I’m going to put these in the kitchen, and we can all figure it out from there.” Jazzy gets up and follows Eddie, not entirely sure if she’s in control of her own body. Harry’s close behind, Jazzy can see him and she doesn’t know how. Eddie is sorting through the pizza, putting their different orders into separate piles. “Here’s your cheese,” Eddie says to Harry, handing him an entire box.

“Thanks.”

Eddie points to the pile with five boxes to his left. “These are your’s, Jazz.”

“That’s a lot,” she murmurs. Jazzy opens the top box and immediately starts shoving the slices of extra cheese into her mouth. “Wow, I’m hungry,” she says around a mouthful.

Harry stares at her, own slice hanging in front of his half open mouth. “Why are you eating two slices at once?” Jazzy looks over to him and he startles backward. “O-o-okay…”

“They’re hungry,” Eddie states. “Anguish is probably more in control than Jazzy is right now.” He calmly bites into his own slice as Venom materializes and opens a separate box. Venom’s form becomes more solid, shoulders and arms forming as the black symbiote practically stuffs the entire pizza into his mouth.

Jazzy looks down at her own box and finds it empty. An animalistic growl forces itself through her throat as she shoves the box aside and moves onto the next. Harry sits down on a stool and continues working his way through his own pizza, much slower in comparison. Before Jazzy can even comprehend how much she’s eaten, her five large pizzas are gone.

**‘More.’**

“There is no more, Anguish,” Jazzy mumbles.

**‘There is over there.’** Jazzy looks over at Eddie’s pizzas. **‘Take it.’** Jazzy reaches out. Venom snaps at her hand, teeth far enough that there was no chance of him actually biting her.

**“Ours,”** Venom growls.

“We’re still hungry,” Jazzy responds. Eddie’s hand comes between them. Jazzy feels warmth coarse through her and she’s not entirely sure why.

“Please don’t fight over pizza,” Eddie says, sounding very tired and exasperated.

“You can have the rest of mine,” Harry says. He pushes his box in Jazzy’s general direction.

Jazzy grabs the box. “Thanks, Har.”

**‘I like him.’**

“Good,” Jazzy replies, shoving a slice into her mouth. “Because in this house we love Harry.”

“What?” Harry asks.

“She likes you,” Jazzy explains. “Because you gave us pizza, I think.”

**“We should go out and find some snacks tonight,”** Venom says, mostly to Eddie. Eddie sighs.

**‘Yes, snacks,’** Anguish rumbles.

“It’s probably too soon for Jazzy to go and bite someone’s head off,” Eddie replies, eyes widening with each word.

“I don’t know, Jazzy seems down for murder,” Harry says with a shrug. Eddie looks at him.

**‘I’ll be doing the eating.’**

“But I’ll see what you do, right?” Jazzy asks her symbiote.

“Yeah, you will,” Eddie replies in her stead.

Jazzy thoughtfully chews her pizza slice. “Well,” she says, swallowing, “we’ll have to eat someone eventually.”

Eddie shuts the empty pizza box in front of him rather aggressively. He points at Jazzy. “Not tonight, you’ve had enough pizza.”

**‘Killjoy.’**

“Fine, _Dad_,” Jazzy sasses, rolling her eyes. She turns to Harry. “We should probably go back to your place, huh?”

“Probably,” Harry agrees.

“Dan should see you first,” Eddie says.

“Could stop by the hospital, not a problem,” Jazzy responds with a shrug.

**‘We could eat Norman. You don’t like him.’**

Jazzy hums. “I’m not really opposed to that actually.”

“So, we going back home?” Harry asks. Jazzy nods. “Okay, cool, let me just, uh, find Midna.”


	5. Chapter 5

**‘Hungry.’**

“When are you not?” Jazzy groans, rolling over in bed and burying her face in the cloud-like pillow.

**‘I’ll eat your spleen.’**

“Fuck, whatever,” Jazzy mumbles. She feels Anguish’s surprise at her statement. “Do what you want, I guess.”

**‘What I want…’** Anguish ponders. **‘I want to go out and get food.’**

“Will you let me sleep if we get something?”

**‘Sure.’**

“Okay.” Jazzy huffs as she pushes herself into a sitting position, clambering out of bed. “Let me just put my suit on.”

**‘Your suit is destroyed and it is unnecessary.’**

“I forgot,” Jazzy mutters, rubbing the heel of her hand against her forehead. “Why’s it unnecessary?” Jazzy feels like her skin is shifting around her and when she looks down an exact replica of her suit covers her body. “How’d you do that?”

**‘Shapeshifter.’** Jazzy’s belt ripples and a small tendril appears, hovering in front of her face with white eyes staring. **“Food,”** Anguish says, a mouth forming below the eyes, white daggers of teeth baring in a grin. The mouth closes, a jagged black line with curls on the edges.

Jazzy reaches up and places a couple of fingers against the side of Anguish’s head. “Yeah, food.” Anguish slinks back into Jazzy’s body. She forces Jazzy toward the window and soon they’re leaping through the city. Anguish spots an assaulter in a dimly lit alleyway. Jazzy drops down, yanking the assaulter away from their would-be victim. The victim runs off, leaving Dancing Spider alone with the criminal.

**‘Let me eat them.’**

The criminal breaks out of their frozen state, pulling out a handgun and firing several rounds. There’s not enough space for Jazzy to dodge all of them, and one lodges itself under her collarbone. She hisses in pain. Her arm raises on its own accord and a blue tendril envelopes it, elongating until it has the criminal pressed against the bricks. Jazzy moves upward, and she looks down to find her symbiote wrapping around her legs and elongating them. The symbiotic flesh wraps its way up Jazzy’s body until her vision is framed by teeth, then everything becomes tinged and warped, like she’s looking through the bottom of a glass bottle. Jazzy feels warm, unopposed to Anguish taking full control of her body.

“W-what the hell?” the assaulter stutters, looking up with terror in their eyes.

Anguish’s joy rolls over Jazzy in pleasant waves that electrify her skin. **“A little midnight snack.”** Jazzy watches with twisted satisfaction as Anguish bites down on the person’s neck, crunching down on the skull not even swallowing before taking another bite. Jazzy can taste each bite, and she relishes in it. The meat is sweet and bitter at the same time. After Anguish devours the entire body, a long tongue reminiscent of Venom’s snakes out and licks the blood off her teal hand and pink, clawed fingers. 

**“Mmm…”** Anguish hums. **“More?”**

‘You still hungry?’

**“Not at the moment,”** Anguish replies. **“But that was delicious.”**

‘I...agree,’ Jazzy says, the agreement feeling strange on her tongue, like she shouldn’t, but she does. ‘But we can’t go killing people, we’ll get too much attention and then people will try to kill us.’

**“Fine.”** Anguish’s form disappears, leaving Jazzy in her spider suit once again. Jazzy prepares to jump to the roof of the building in front of her, but a flash of movement in the corner of her eye catches her attention.

“What was that?” she wonders aloud.

**‘Sand.’**

Jazzy stands straighter. “Oh. Sand, huh?” Anguish’s curiosity amplifies her own. She hops onto the wall and crawls along it, following the movement of the amorphous shape. The sand glitters when it catches the low glow of the street lamps.

**‘Are we going to eat him too?’**

“Sand doesn’t taste very good, Anguish, I don’t think so.”

Sandman turns a corner and Jazzy peers around on the edge of a building. He solidifies, carrying a bag full of stolen goods no doubt, and knocks on a dark door. A slim metal hatch opens and Jazzy can see the deep purple eyes of a man looking through. Nothing is said between them, but the door is opened and Sandman is let inside. Jazzy waits until the heavy door shuts before dropping to the ground and walking over.

“Shed the suit,” Jazzy tells Anguish. Her suit disappears to reveal her pajamas. Jazzy walks over to the door and knocks. The same eyes answer.

“Who are you?” he says, voice deep and rich.

“Jazzy,” she replies. “Can I come in?”

“Show me.”

Jazzy’s brows pull together. She shifts on her feet, unsure what to do. **‘We should just eat him,’** Anguish suggests.

“Yeah, okay,” Jazzy murmurs in agreement. Anguish’s form wraps around her.

She leans forward, anticipation coursing through the both of them, but before Anguish can make any further moves, the man says, “Come on in.”

Anguish leans back slightly, confused. **“Thank you,”** she says as the door opens. Anguish walks inside and looks back as the door slams.

“You haven’t been here before, so here’s the rules,” the guy says. “No calling the cops, no starting any fights, no Terrans allowed. Got it?”

**“Got it.”**

‘What is this place?’ Jazzy wonders. She feels Anguish shrug. They head down the hallway where the sound of voices emanates and find themselves in a large open bar with many different species mingling, laughing and drinking. Anguish looks around and finds Sandman tucked away in a corner booth by himself, sullenly sipping at a golden liquid. Anguish heads toward him, maneuvering through the crowd and sitting across from him.

He looks up. “Who are you?”

**“Anguish,”** she replies, tilting her head. Jazzy looks down at the glass held in Sandman’s hand, seeing Anguish’s reflection. The familiar white eyes shimmering like opals, pink lining her forehead, heading to a point where her nose would be, teal travelling down her neck. Anguish’s mouth is closed, teeth hidden behind wavy black lips, curling up at the corners. Teal fading to fuschia colors the symbiote’s voluminous hair flowing around her broad, muscular shoulders with black stripes crossing across her chest.

‘You’re beautiful,’ Jazzy mutters before she can put much thought into her words. Anguish hums, a content, pleased rumble rolling through their combined bodies.

“What do you want?” Sandman asks. “I’d rather you just leave me alone.”

**“Why do you steal?”** Anguish asks, searching through Jazzy’s mind and finding her memories of the Sandman. Jazzy’s startled as her memories flash vividly across her mind.

Sandman goes rigid, a dark look settling over his features. He puts his glass down. “Doesn’t matter, doesn’t hurt anyone.”

‘Let me talk to him,’ Jazzy says.

**“Okay.”** Anguish recedes, forming a hoodie in her image around Jazzy. **‘We should still eat him.’**

“No we shouldn’t, Anguish,” Jazzy murmurs. “Sorry about her being so...blunt.”

“What?” Sandman asks, staring at her.

“My, uh, body buddy, Anguish, I guess she doesn’t have any manners,” Jazzy explains. Anguish grumbles. “I’m Jazzy. What’s your name?”

“Abalos,” he says after a long moment of hesitation. “Do I know you?”

“No, not really,” Jazzy says. “Abalos, that’s a nice name. What brought you here?”

“Earth or this place?”

“Both, either.” Jazzy shrugs.

Abalos picks his glass up again, staring into the liquid as he sloshes it around. “My planet’s called Dutyria. I left because of a revolution that killed my wife. I’m in this bar because it’s a safe place for unregistered aliens like me on Earth, and no Terrans are allowed.”

“You don’t like Terrans,” Jazzy states. He nods. “Why?”

“Why are you asking me all these questions?”

“I saw you fighting Dancing Spider,” Jazzy says, “and I wanted to know why.”

**‘Why don’t you just tell him that you _are_ Dancing Spider?’** Anguish wonders.

“That’s a bad idea, Guish,” Jazzy mutters with an eye roll. “You’re welcome to ask me questions too, Abalos.”

“What are you?” he asks.

“Uh,” Jazzy looks down at the table and clicks her fingernails against the dark wood.

**‘My host,’** Anguish says.

“I’m a host,” Jazzy repeats. “For my symbiote, Anguish.” Abalos narrows his eyes, but doesn’t say anything. “We were both born on Earth, though. But I’m still curious, why don’t you like Terrans?”

“They’re liars and deceitful assholes. They don’t care about us, why do you think we hide?”

“Not all are bad,” Jazzy states.

“Osborn is.”

Jazzy’s eyes widen. “What did he do to you?”

“What does it matter?”

“I want to take him down, strip him of his power,” Jazzy explains. “He tried to kill me and he hurts his son.”

Abalos’ jaw clenches, his facial stripes rippling like waves. “He hurts his son,” he repeats, “he’s no father.” His knuckles turns white as his grip tightens around his glass.   
“He gave me a job, said he’d pay me well. I was never paid, I never worked, I was his damn science experiment. Osborn turned me into this.” Abalos raises his free hand and it turns to sand, swirling above his wrist.

Jazzy takes a deep breath, something akin to excitement running through her. “You can help me take him down.”

“Gladly,” Abalos responds. “So long as my daughter is safe.”

Jazzy blinks. “You have a daughter?”

He gives a jolted nod. “‘S why I left Dutyria.”

Jazzy taps her fingers some more. **‘We can protect her, if this is so important to you.’**

“You know how much I hate Norman,” Jazzy says to her symbiote. “I’d let you eat him if Harry didn’t say no.”

**‘We should eat him anyway.’**

“Not if it risks losing Harry,” Jazzy says.

“You’re friends with him, aren’t you?” Abalos asks. Jazzy nods. “Why?”

“He helped me out, he’s much better than his father, but he’s just...conflicted,” Jazzy mutters. “Doesn’t want his dad to die because he’s his only family.” Jazzy sighs. “We’ll protect your daughter if you help us.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Because I’m a criminal, just like you,” Jazzy states. “If I fail, you go to the authorities and tell them that Jazlyn Joyce is a murderer, which is a much worse crime than stealing, at least here.” Jazzy tilts her head. “Plus, I don’t think I hate anyone more than Norman Osborn.”

Abalos chuckles softly, lifting his glass to his lips and taking a small sip. “Promise me you’ll protect her.”

“I swear,” Jazzy says. “But I don’t know what she looks like.”

Abalos sets his glass down, eyes on Jazzy in a piercing gaze. “I suppose I can get her,” he says slowly.

“She’s here?”

“We live here.” Abalos closes his eyes and breathes in deeply. He exhales as he opens them, turning in his seat to look at a hidden door behind the bar. The door opens and a little girl with the same striped skin as Abalos walks out, nervously wringing her hands as she meanders through the crowd toward their booth. Her dark brown hair rolls over her shoulders in perfect ringlets. She crawls into the booth next to her father and curls up against his side.

“Hi,” Jazzy says. The child stares up at her with golden doe eyes. “I’m Jazzy.”

“This is Datura,” Abalos introduces. “She is unable to speak.” He looks down at Datura, eyes flickering across her face. She looks up at him and then back at Jazzy. She nods.

“Are you...talking to each other?” Jazzy asks, unsure how else to phrase her question.

“We are, Dutyrians have telepathic bonds with their children.”

**‘Like us.’** Jazzy hums. Her phone pings. She pulls it out.

**Please come back** reads the message from Harry. **Dads throwing things**

“We have to go,” Jazzy tells Abalos. “It was nice meeting you both.” Jazzy stands and smooths down her pajama pants. “Do you have a phone? I’ll give you my number in case you need anything.”

Abalos gives a short nod, handing over his device. Jazzy creates a new contact and enters her number. She hands the phone back before leaving the bar, allowing Anguish to take control and take them back to the penthouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you ever write something and then wonder why you wrote something so messed up but then you keep it? because that's what i'm thinking rn about the head eating part


	6. Chapter 6

Jazzy slips into Harry’s room, Anguish disappearing beneath her skin. Harry stares at her, eyes wide. She hears a bang from the next room.

“He’s in your room, throwing your shit,” Harry mutters. “Maybe you should stay in my room for the rest of summer.”

“As long as you don’t mind me coming and going in the middle of the night.”

“You know I don’t really sleep.”

**‘Let us go eat him,’** Anguish suggests.

“Anguish, we talked about this,” Jazzy sighs, rolling her eyes in exasperation. She returns her attention to Harry. “Should I, uh, I don’t know, go and, like, tell him to stop?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Harry responds, sounding borderline hysterical.

Another thud follows Harry’s voice, then silence reverberates through the house. Jazzy nudges Harry’s door open, peering down the hallway as Norman leaves the guest room and heads back to his own. Jazzy slips through the crack, going to assess the damage of her stuff. She searches through, grateful to find her laptop and notebook still tucked away on the corner of the desk. Her clothes appear untouched, and only her rather unimportant things have been tossed about haphazardly. Jazzy sighs in relief. She grabs her laptop, notebook, and a few other things, taking them back to Harry’s room.

“It’s not as bad as I thought,” Jazzy says, tossing her things onto the couch. “You sure you’re okay sharing your bed?”

“Yeah, that’s fine, I--” Harry is cut off by his and Jazzy’s phones ringing. Jazzy answers her phone, collapsing onto the couch.

“Hello?” she says as Harry begins talking in hushed tones as he makes his way to his walk-in closet.

“Hey,” comes the response, familiar voice tinged with fear and exhaustion.

“Flash, what’s up?”

Jazzy hears him suck in a breath. “I almost fucking died.”

Jazzy bolts upright. “What?! What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m...fine, a few scratches,” Flash tells her. “Spidey saved us and Mysterio tried to kill us. He blew our fucking bus up.” Flash sighs. “I just needed to call someone, and I figured Parker was gonna call Harry.”

“Why was Spider-Man in Europe?”

“Don’t know, guess he saw the damage being done and came to stop Mysterio.” Flash sighs. “Tell me what’s been going on with you.”

Jazzy bites her lip, wanting to know more about what happened. She decides against asking more questions.“I found a secret bar for aliens,” Jazzy says. “Don’t ask how I got in, but I did.”

“Yeah? What was that like?”

“Oh, yanno, met some people, talked to a guy running from war.” Jazzy tucks her lip between her teeth again. “And a couple weeks ago I ran into Cletus Kasady. Guess we’re both almost dying lately, huh?”

“Christ, Jazzy, are you okay?”

Jazzy laughs lightly. “Yeah, was saved by Venom and I found out who his host is.”

“I figured Eddie would tell you sooner or later,” Flash laughs. “But has he told you about the nature of his relationship with Ven?”

**‘They’re very close,’** Anguish mutters.

“He has not,” Jazzy admits, ignoring her symbiote. “But how did you find out?”

“Uh, I read his articles, watch his show, and he started covering Venom,” Flash starts, “so I asked him more about Venom, and he kept letting things slip, like his name and the type of people he kills. I realized there was no way he could know any of this unless he knew Venom personally, but there hadn’t been enough time for him to, yanno, get to know Venom unless it was him.” Flash chuckles. “I told him, he didn’t bother hiding it.”

“You’re okay with it?”

“Absolutely, I think it’s awesome.”

Jazzy’s heart warms. **‘You like him,’** Anguish states. Jazzy bites her lip, but doesn’t respond. **‘In the same way as Jenny.’**

Jazzy’s eyes widen and her body goes rigid. She slowly moves her hand over the phone. “Excuse me?” she asks Anguish, tears pricking at her eyes.

**‘Jenny, Flash, you like them the same.’**

“That’s not true, I barely know him.” Anguish hums in disbelief. “How do you know about her anyway?”

**‘I’m in your head.’**

“You alright, Jazzy?” Flash asks.

“Y-yeah, I just got, uh, distracted.”

**‘You could tell him about me, he probably wouldn’t think badly of it, despite your worries.’** Jazzy shakes her head.

“Okay,” Flash says. “Oh, did Harry tell you I’m coming over soon?”

“He did not, what in the fuckening Harold?”

“Why are you swearing at me?” Harry shouts from the closet.

“Flash is coming over and you didn’t tell me,” Jazzy explains. Flash laughs.

“Yeah, I’ll see you in a week,” Flash says. “Can’t wait.” Jazzy can hear the wink and feels heat rushing to her cheeks.

“Me too,” she mutters.

“Gotta go, getting on the plane.”

“Safe flight, don’t die,” Jazzy says.

“I’ll try,” Flash responds before ending the call. Jazzy stares down at her phone.

**‘Why don’t you like them the same? It feels like you do.’**

Jazzy sighs. “Anguish, why are you still on about this?”

**‘I want to know.’**

“What I feel for Flash is at most a crush, but more likely infatuation, which is very different from love, alright?”

**‘How?’**

“Uh, well,” Jazzy taps her thigh, “I can’t really put it into words. I just know, yanno?”

**‘I guess.’**

Harry emerges from his closet, brows furrowed and shoulders hunched. “Flash tell you about Mysterio?”

“Yeah, I think he wanted me to distract him,” Jazzy says with a shrug. “What about Peter?”

“He’s, uh, having a really rough time,” Harry says. He slouches over to the couch. “And he asked Em-Jay out, she said yes, so I guess my two best friends are dating each other now.” Harry runs his hands through his hair. “Can’t wait to be the third wheel in college,” he says with a bitter laugh.


	7. Chapter 7

Jazzy stares at her laptop screen and the empty document on it. Her fingers hover over the keyboard as she tries to think of anything to write, whether the possible start of an article or a simple poem. Nothing comes and her fingers remain stationary. Jazzy groans in frustration.

**‘What’s wrong?’** Anguish wonders.

“You’re in my head, figure it out,” Jazzy snaps. “Sorry, I’m frustrated.”

**‘Take a break?’**

“I haven’t even done anything!” Jazzy presses her forehead against the cool wood of the desk. “I just want to do something.”

Anguish hums. **“Maybe you’re frustrated in other ways,”** the symbiote suggests, materializing from Jazzy’s abdomen, squeezing in-between the space separating Jazzy from the desk. Her form continues to solidify until the upper half of her body is solid, long hair curling over Jazzy’s legs in soft waves. Anguish’s long-fingered hands come to rest on her cheeks. Jazzy looks up into Anguish’s white eyes and teasing grin full of teeth. The symbiote lightly drags a claw down Jazzy’s cheek to her jaw.

Jazzy swallows hard as heat courses through her body. “You do realize how...how that sounds, right?” she chokes out.

**“Of course, I am in your head.”**

“Is that, uh, what you’re intending? Um, insinuating?”

**“Do you want it to be?”**

Jazzy forces her gaze away from the symbiote’s eyes, moving lower toward the ever shifting tendrils connecting them; her eyes linger a little longer over Anguish’s chest than is necessary. Jazzy looks through the tendrils to her now dark laptop screen and her own reflection. She looks back up to Anguish’s face as she tilts her head.

“What do you want?” Jazzy whispers.

**“I want you to feel better. I can do that by pleasing you, yes?”**

“Well, that’s definitely one way to do it. But why that way?”

**“It’s been on your mind lately.”**

Jazzy bites her bottom lip. “What you’re suggesting, and I’m not saying I’m opposed, it could make things, ah, complicated between us.”

**“Why should it? We inhabit the same body.”** Anguish leans closer, hot breath caressing Jazzy’s face. **“So what do you say, Jazzy?”**

Jazzy rubs at the base of her neck. _But Jenny…_

**“She’s not here.”**

Jazzy startles at Anguish’s blunt response. She begins to feel the build-up of pain in her chest, the all too familiar heartache. Jazzy closes her eyes, the pain fueling the anger constantly simmering inside her and the frustration of the day. She opens her eyes and stares at the thin line of Anguish’s closed mouth and the beauty of her symbiote’s figure. Jazzy’s hands find their way to Anguish’s semi-solid waist and she leans forward until her lips are pressed against the symbiote’s. Anguish makes a mewling sound as the hand resting on Jazzy’s cheek slips around to the back of her neck and the one on her jaw slips down to her shoulder.

Jazzy opens her mouth and Anguish mimics her, her long tongue snaking out and wrapping under Jazzy’s chin leaving a cooling trail across her skin. Jazzy moans into the kiss, kicking her chair further away from the desk. Anguish’s claws dig into her skin and she relishes the pain, spikes of pleasure emanating from the hot pinpricks. Anguish presses their bodies together, breasts flattening against each other. Anguish’s body begins to vibrate like she’s purring at too low a frequency for human ears.  
Jazzy pulls back, chest heaving against her symbiote as the feelings of pleasure, want, and need intensify beyond anything Jazzy’s felt before. Her head feels like it’s spinning as Anguish nuzzles into her neck, teeth nipping at her sensitive skin. Jazzy tilts her head, allowing Anguish more skin, with little thought. Her vision begins to blur. Jazzy leans her head back and watches the lightly textured ceiling circle around her. One of Anguish’s hands sneak up Jazzy’s shirt, cool hand tracing her muscles.

“Anguish…” Jazzy breathes, eyes slipping shut. She tries to focus on one sensation, but it all becomes too much and everything slips into a hazy darkness with each sensation floating in the back of her mind.


	8. Chapter 8

**“Jazzy,”** a raspy voice repeats over and over. Jazzy slowly opens her eyes, blinking at the lights and the white eyes above her. **“What happened?”**

“What?” Jazzy mumbles, head buzzing.

**“You’re mind went dark,”** Anguish states, head tilting.

Jazzy rubs her forehead. “I think...I think I passed out.”

**“You okay?”**

“Yeah, I think it was just too much...pleasure.”

Anguish opens her mouth to respond, but the door opens and Harry enters the room. “So Flash…” Harry trails off. “Uh, what did I just walk into?”

“Nothing,” Jazzy says quickly. “I just, uh, kinda passed out and Guish was checking on me.”

“Okay…” Harry stares. “You have hair,” he finally says.

**“Aren’t you observant,”** Anguish replies. She stares right back.

“So, what about Flash?” Jazzy asks, breaking the rather awkward silence growing between the three of them.

“Oh! He’s arriving in like five minutes at the airport, I wanted to know if you wanna come pick him up with me.”

**“Yes we do, I want to meet him.”**

“What Anguish said, I guess,” Jazzy chuckles. “Let me just get some shoes on.”

“Okay.” Harry leans against the doorframe.

Anguish traces Jazzy’s jaw with her finger one more time before disappearing out of sight. Jazzy stands up and follows Harry out of the room and toward the door. **‘Did you like it?’**

“If you’re in my head you already know the answer’s yes,” Jazzy mutters. “Did you?”

**‘Yes.’**

“Let’s not talk about it around, uh, other people though,” Jazzy mumbles. Anguish sends an impression of agreement and understanding. “Hey Harry? Should we bring Link to make sure he doesn’t like, yanno, pee inside the house?”

“Yeah, probably. I’ll go grab him.” Harry rushes back to the bedrooms.

Jazzy slips on some sandals once she reaches the foyer. Harry comes back a few moments later and then they head down to the garage. “So why’s Flash coming over?”

“Help me pack and move to college,” Harry explains, carefully handing the puppy over. Jazzy takes him, pressing a kiss to Link’s forehead. “Yanno it’s kinda weird that you talk to yourself now.”

“Technically not to myself.”

“I know, but that’s what it looks like.” Harry steps into the car with Jazzy sliding in beside him. “Have you killed anyone yet?”

“Yeah,” Jazzy says with a shrug. “It didn’t bother me, which is probably bad, right?”

Harry shrugs. “Probably, but there’s nothing you can do about it.” Harry turns toward the front. “Airport please, KARI.” The car starts up and they’re on their way. Link trundles across the limo seats. “Are you gonna tell Flash?”

“About?”

“Anguish.”

“I might.”

They spend the fairly long drive to the airport in comfortable silence, music playing from one of Harry’s playlists and a liter of soda passing between them. Jazzy looks out the car window when they arrive at the airport, enjoying the looks of amazement people have as they pass by. KARI idles in the pick-up zone. Flash comes into view with a suitcase in hand and his cocky grin in place. He saunters up to the limousine, throwing his luggage into the back before joining Jazzy and Harry in the spacious back seats.

“Hey guys,” he greets, making himself comfortable. He winks at Jazzy.

“Hey,” Jazzy says with a lazy wave.

“Sup,” Harry says.

“Is that a puppy? You gonna sneak a dog into the dorm too, Harry?” Flash asks, leaning over and rubbing Link’s side.

“Nah, he’s Jazzy’s. Home, KARI.”

“Still have no clue where I’m gonna keep him when I’m at school,” Jazzy states. “But that’s fine.” Jazzy scratches the puppy’s butt. “His name’s Link, by the way.” Jazzy looks up at Flash. “Which room are you staying in?”

“Uhhh…” Flash looks over at Harry with his eyebrow raised. “Usually I stay in the guest room but you’re here.”

“I’m staying in Harry’s room,” Jazzy states. “Don’t really wanna be in a bedroom where I almost died.”

Harry snorts. “Do you want Flash in that room?”

“Are you suggesting we all sleep in the same bed?” Jazzy asks. “Is the bed even big enough?”

“The bed’s big enough,” Harry says, rolling his eyes. “And that’s only what I’m suggesting if you guys are down for it.”

Flash shrugs. “Cuddling with some of the best people? Course I’m down.”

**‘Cuddling?’** Jazzy brings up her memory of when she met Flash with her snug against his side. **‘Oh, cuddling.’**

“Yeah,” Jazzy mumbles.

“Yes you’re down or…?” Harry asks.

“Uh, yeah sure,” Jazzy replies. “Though I might, like, wake you up in the middle of the night accidentally.”

“Harry does that too,” Flash says. “I don’t really care, I’m a pretty heavy sleeper.”

Link gets up and rests his head on Jazzy’s thigh. She automatically reaches down and runs her hand along his soft fur. “Are you okay?”

“Me?” Flash says, pointing at himself. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Mysterio,” Harry states. “Peter...Peter wasn’t.”

Flash shrugs. “I was right that Spidey’s better,” he states, crossing his arms. “I wasn’t hurt, just freaked out. Having a drone chasing after you trying to kill you isn’t fun.”

“Wait, I thought Mysterio was a sorcerer,” Jazzy says.

“Don’t you watch the news, Jazz?” Harry teases. Jazzy glares at him. “There was a storm monster, but it turned out it was just a bunch of drones, and Mysterio released a video.”

“That video is a bunch of bullshit,” Flash scoffs.

Jazzy pulls her phone out and quickly searches for the video. She finds it easily, J. Jonah Jameson’s face in the thumbnail. She watches, the video being recorded by Mysterio without his helmet, sweat causing his hair to stick to his forehead. He appears to be short of breath, dying. Behind him at legs clad in blue spandex. Mysterio hurriedly whispers into the camera that Spider-Man is at fault for the destruction. The video ends abruptly, right as Mysterio is about to reveal Spider-Man’s identity. Jameson comes on screen, saying that Mysterio, Quentin Beck, died a hero and a martyr. Jazzy continues to stare at her phone screen long after the video ends.

**‘That doesn’t seem like Spider-Man is the good guy,’** Anguish states. Jazzy can’t help but silently agree. **‘Maybe Mysterio is a sorcerer.’**

Jazzy hums. “Well this seems like a sticky situation, huh?”

Flash snorts. “Yeah, a bit. Almost everyone hates Spidey now, even though he didn’t do that.”


	9. Chapter 9

Jazzy finds herself staring up at the ceiling, Harry and Flash sleeping soundly on both of her sides. Flash is snoring lightly and Harry’s face is pressed into his pillow, a small puddle of drool forming below his agape mouth. Jazzy twiddles her thumbs over her stomach.

_What to do, what to do, what to do,_ she thinks idley.

**‘What to do indeed,’** Anguish finishes for her. Jazzy can’t help but smile. **‘We could go out.’** Jazzy frowns.

“You aren’t that hungry,” she whispers, voice sounding much too loud. Flash snorts and rolls onto his back. “I just want to go back to sleep,” Jazzy says even quieter.

**‘You know that won’t happen for another couple of hours.’**

Jazzy sighs. “I know.” She glances at the peaceful lumps that are her friends. “What do you suggest?”

**‘Let’s fight some crime.’** Jazzy nods, carefully pushing herself up to the headboard where she lifts her legs over her head and sticks to the wall. She walks over to the window as Anguish wraps herself around Jazzy in the image of her spider suit. She slides the window open and crawls outside, looking back in to see Harry and Flash still asleep before closing the window. Jazzy pushes herself off the building to the roof of the next.

“Where we headed tonight?”

**‘Where you met my parent,’** Anguish says. Jazzy raises an eyebrow, but heads off in that direction anyway. She stops a minor mugging on the way, leaving him tied up under a lamppost. Anguish grumbles about not being able to eat him.

Jazzy drops down in front of the dilapidated building where she first met Venom, pushing open the weak door and walking inside. She looks through the rooms as before, but finds no one huddled in corners or shooting up heroin. Jazzy walks into the largest room, finding blood still staining the walls and floor. She steps over the threshold and everything around her flickers, bright lights temporarily blinding her. Jazzy opens her eyes and finds herself standing on the edge of a cliff peering over a river of green smoke. Heat blasts into her face as she stumbles backward.

“What the hell?” she gasps, hand resting against what used to be the doorframe and is now a large boulder.

**‘This isn’t where we were.’**

Jazzy looks around with wide eyes, sure her mind is playing tricks, but Anguish assures her that it isn’t. The smoke begins to rise, the heat intensifying no matter how far Jazzy backs away. As the green swirls begin to curl up around the edges of the cliff, a figure appears across the river, slowly growing closer.

“Who the fuck are you?” Jazzy shouts.

“I am the truth!” the figure yells, voice echoing throughout the cave. “I reveal all.”

“That really doesn’t answer my question,” Jazzy murmurs.

The figure comes closer, enough for Jazzy to make out the bright lights shining from golden armor and a heavy maroon cloak swishing around the entity. The lights reflect off a dark green undersuit and golden boots. Jazzy’s breath catches as she takes in the shape of the helmet, orb-like. Mist swirls inside the helmet, obscuring the person within.

“Mysterio,” Jazzy states. “You’re dead.”

“Am I?” he responds, arms spread to his sides. Mysterio drops down onto the cliff in front of Dancing Spider. “Who are you?”

“Dancing Spider,” Jazzy says. “You’re in my territory.”

**‘We can hypnotize him,’** Anguish suggests. **‘You don’t have to dance anymore.’**

“What?” Jazzy mutters.

**‘I can do it.’** Anguish wraps around Jazzy’s arm, raising it and turning her palm upward, iridescent smoke emanating from her claws and floating toward Mysterio. The mist wraps around his helmet. **‘That should work.’**

“What was that supposed to be?” Mysterio questions.

“It didn’t work,” Jazzy states.

**‘It should have.’**

Mysterio steps forward, swishing his cloak. Jazzy hears a sound start to play, quiet and unassuming. It’s slow and lilting, almost hypnotic. “Come forth, Dancing Spider, let me see your face.”

Jazzy’s spider sense starts up, barely there. She doesn’t move. “I won’t do that.”

Mysterio stops. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, I don’t trust you so I sure as hell am not showing you my face.”

The sound stops. “You’re immune,” Mysterio states.

“To?”

“My hypnotization.”

**‘That makes sense, he probably is too.’**

“You’re a hypnotist,” Jazzy says, taking a step forward. “So am I. Looks like we’re at a standstill.” She notices the green smoke gathering around their feet. Jazzy keeps her eyes on Mysterio’s helmet. “How are you alive?”

“The truth cannot be killed,” Mysterio replies. “Merely...buried.”

Jazzy taps her thigh. “I should tell Spider-Man, or the news, I could, yanno, and they’d believe me.”

“Did you not see my video?” Mysterio asks. “I’m not the one that hurt all those people.”

“Then why did you lie?”

“About my death? Well, if Spider-Man thought I was still alive he wouldn’t stop coming after me until I was dead. He thought that if he killed me his true nature would never be found out.”

**‘It all adds up, Jazzy,’** Anguish whispers in her mind.

_Flash said he tried to kill him,_ Jazzy thinks back. _With drones._

**‘What drones?’**

“How did you do this?” Jazzy asks, gesturing around them and down at the smoke now up to her calves. “Is this all an illusion?”

“You’re wondering about the drones in the video, aren’t you?” Mysterio asks. Jazzy nods. “Those weren’t mine, they were Spider-Man’s. All that destruction, all those casualties were caused by him. I was there to save them. Not only in London, but in Venice and Prague as well.”

“My friends say otherwise,” Jazzy states. “I can’t trust you.”

Mysterio laughs. “Your friends? They believe what they want to believe, just like everyone else, but I know the truth. I know the real Spider-Man.”

“I know this is an illusion,” Jazzy states, “so how can I trust anything you’re telling me now?”

“As you wish.” Their surroundings flicker with the same blinding light as before, revealing the building that Jazzy walked into. The smoke clears and the air grows cooler. Mysterio’s helmet retracts, revealing the same face Jazzy saw in the video, only cleaner. His short, dark hair is swept back and his scruff frames his face well. He spreads his hands. “No illusions. Let me tell you the truth.”

“I won’t believe what you say, not unless I trust you.”

“Then I’ll earn your trust,” he says. He holds out a gloved hand. “Quentin Beck.”

Jazzy takes it. “Dancing Spider.”

“I can tell your eyes are not deluded from all the backless claims, I hope I can help you find what’s real,” Quentin states. “But I can only do that as long as everyone believes that I am dead.”

“Okay,” Jazzy says. “I won’t tell anyone, but only because you’ve piqued my curiosity.”

“Fair enough,” he says. “I must go, I’m sure you’ll be able to find me again.”

“I’m sure,” Jazzy says and watches as Mysterio leaves, flying into the shadows of the back room. “Did you know he’d be here?” Jazzy asks Anguish.

**‘No. Why aren’t you going to tell anyone?’**

“What he’s said so far makes sense,” Jazzy mutters, turning around and heading toward the front door. “It’s best not to jump to conclusions too, that can cause so much unnecessary pain.” Jazzy opens the door and stops, looking back into the building. “That seemed so real.” She shakes her head. “Let’s head home.”


	10. Chapter 10

**‘Hungry. Sushi.’**

Jazzy rolls her eyes, passing the finish line first on Rainbow Road. “We--uh, I’m hungry,” Jazzy announces, setting her controller on her lap.

“How are you so good at Rainbow Road?” Flash asks, clearly frustrated, falling off for probably the twentieth time.

“Because it’s one of my favorite courses,” Jazzy replies. “But you guys up for sushi after you finish?”

“Sure, sure,” Harry says, practically throwing his controller down when he barely finishes third. “Flying Fish I assume because, uh, because I don’t think you, you eat at any o-other sushi place.”

“You just gotta call me out like that, huh?”

“Mhmm.”

“Flash?”

“What?” He finishes the course--tenth place--and looks over. “Sushi? Yeah, I like sushi.” Flash puts his controller down beside him. “Wanna go now?”

“Yeah, let me get Link first, he could use a walk,” Jazzy says, clapping and standing up. She whistles, walking around the couch. She grabs Link’s leash from Harry’s desk and finds her puppy--already close to the size of a large beagle--half under Harry’s bed. She bends down and scratches his finally erect ears, hooking the leash to his green collar. Link looks at the leash and jumps up, whining as his tail wags violently. “Someone’s excited,” Jazzy comments with a smile. She grabs her purse and shoves her phone inside. “You guys ready?”

“I need, need shoes,” Harry says, standing up. He shoves his phone and wallet into his pockets.

“I’m ready,” Flash states, already walking over to the door. Harry follows him, stopping to pat Midna on the head as she watches them from his bed.

**‘We could just eat the cat,’** Anguish jokes. Jazzy huffs out a laugh and leads the way to the front door. They all put their shoes on, sandals for Jazzy, Flash’s sneakers, and Harry puts on a pair of combat boots.

They walk to the sushi bar, Link trotting happily alongside them as Harry keeps his hands in his pockets and eyes on the sidewalk. Flash throws his arm around Jazzy’s shoulders and grins down at her. Jazzy smiles back.

**‘Is Harry okay?’** Anguish wonders. **‘He’s acting strange.’**

Jazzy’s eyes move from Flash’s face to her friend. “You okay, Harry?”

He looks up, then back down at the pavement. “I’m, I’m fine. Schiz.” Harry looks at his reflection in the glass of a building. “Yeah, yeah, just me, schiz, me.” Flash reaches over and pats him on the back. Harry nods jerkily.

The trio arrives at Flying Fish Sushi, Flash going in first to ask the hostess if animals are allowed inside. He comes out with a thumbs-up and his cocky grin. Jazzy enters behind Flash, Harry straggling behind, suspiciously eyeing the hostess. Jazzy sits down at the table they are led to before picking Link up and placing him next to her. She quickly grabs several plates off the belt, finishing two before Flash and Harry can even grab a plate of their own.

“Geez, Jazzy,” Flash laughs. “You weren’t kidding.”

Jazzy continues to devour her sushi, talking with the two guys seated across from her and allowed Link to eat some of the rice and fish every once in awhile. Several prizes come rolling down to their table. Jazzy feels good, happy.

_I love these guys._

Jazzy has a roll halfway to her mouth when an intense spike in her spidey sense travels from the base of her skull to her forehead. Time seems to slow around her as she looks outside the window behind her. An arc of blue lightning streaks across the street straight toward her table. Jazzy shoves the roll into her mouth, swallowing it whole. The glass shatters and Jazzy lunges over the table, cups falling over spilling hot tea and water, Link tucked under her arm like a football. Jazzy tackles Harry and Flash over, knocking them out of their seats as the bolt travels over their bodies and explodes in a flash of sparks against their table, vaporizing it into ash.

“Holy shit!” Flash shouts, looking at their no longer existing table. Harry’s eyes are wide and his body frozen underneath Jazzy.

**‘Electro,’** Anguish states. **‘There’s someone else too.’** Jazzy whips her head around, looking back outside. She sees a man standing across the street, half hidden in shadows with legs like a dog’s. She can see his glinting fangs framed by the upward curl of his lips. Jazzy sets Link down carefully on Harry’s chest.

“I gotta go,” Jazzy says, standing up. The restaurant’s patrons run amok, screaming as they head for the back exit.

Flash sits up and grabs her wrist. “Are you serious?!”

“Yeah I’m serious!” Jazzy replies. “I got a job to do.”

“I’m pretty sure Eddie doesn’t want you to risk your life for an internship,” Flash reasons. Jazzy stares down at him and bites her lip.

“That’s not the job I need to do.” She twists her arm out of Flash’s grip. “Find somewhere safe, I’ll find you after.” She vaults through the broken glass and joins the stream of people running past, ducking into an alleyway before allowing Anguish to cover her body in her spider suit. Jazzy crawls along the building, making her way to the front of Flying Fish Sushi. The man hasn’t moved from his spot, lips still curled as he twirls a knife between his clawed fingers.

**‘Who the hell is that?’**

“Dancing Spider,” the man snarls, pointing his knife at her. “Come down here.”

Jazzy stares him down, squinting against the afternoon light. “Wolff,” she states with a growl of her own. “Aren’t you supposed to be in prison?”

“I got out,” he replies, grin widening. “Come here.”

**‘That’s Jenny’s killer?’**

“He’s had some, ah, body modifications since I last saw him,” Jazzy mumbles. She raises her voice. “Where’s Electro?”

“Take a guess,” Levina’s voice says from above her.

Jazzy looks away from Wolff and up near the rooftops. Electro hovers there, sparks leaping across her body. Her spider sense goes off as Electro flies toward her. Dancing Spider jumps to the side but is met by a piercing, shrieking wall of sound. Her body burns with agony as Anguish’s screams rip out of their throat, causing Jazzy to unstick and drop to the ground. The sound stops abruptly with the cackle of Wolff. Jazzy’s ears ring and Anguish moves restlessly through her body. Dancer stands up, swaying on her feet.

“What was that?” Jazzy mutters, blinking.

**‘Harmful sounds.’** Jazzy can feel Anguish shaking, fear rolling off the symbiote in waves. **‘He could kill us.’**

“Get her,” Jazzy vaguely hears Levina say.

“Of course, Mother,” Wolff replies.

Jazzy stumbles against the wall. “Mother? Aren’t you older than her?” She looks through the broken window of the sushi bar and sees Harry and Flash still inside, crouched under a table with Link between them, tail between his legs.

“Electro is the mother of us all,” Wolff states, “even you.”

Jazzy narrows her eyes and looks up at Levina. “Are you brainwashing people?”

Levina’s smile fades into a sneer. “Brainwashing implies that what I teach is false, and what I say is the truth. I am a goddess, I am your creator as well as Teddy’s, you are all my children.”

“Sounds cult-y,” Dancing Spider states. “Not surprised that someone as scummy as Wolff would believe someone as deluded as you, though.” She dodges a blast of electricity from Levina, kicking Wolff backward into a brick wall as she does so. Jazzy jumps after him, slamming his head against the wall and knocking him unconscious. She lets her spider sense take control of her reflexes, leaping up and pushing herself off the wall and Levina lunges toward her from behind. Electro skids to a stop, spinning around to face Jazzy perched on a lamppost. “Do better,” Jazzy taunts.

**‘Probably shouldn’t be on a light,’** Anguish mentions. Jazzy glances down at her feet.

“You’re right,” she responds. “Can you protect me from electricity?”

**‘Yes.’**

“Awesome.” Dancing Spider pushes herself off, body propelled toward Electro, and watches as her own fist is encased by her symbiote seconds before it connects with her foe’s cheek. Levina crashes into the same wall that Wolff did, cheek angry and red. Jazzy slides across the pavement and examines her hand. No burns, no pain, completely different than the last time. She grins.

**‘We could eat her.’**

“I’d rather eat Wolff.”

**‘Then let’s do that.’**

“Hell yeah,” Jazzy exclaims, sauntering up to Wolff and Levina’s unconscious forms. She lifts Wolff by the neck, tilting his head back and forth.

“What are you doing?” Jazzy hears a voice shout. She looks over and finds Harry staring at her with wide, fearful eyes and Link in his arms. She glances behind him and sees Flash.

**‘What are you waiting for Jazzy? Let me bite his head off.’**

Jazzy looks back at Wolff, then focuses on Harry. “I can’t,” she mutters. “Not in front of them.” She opens her hand, dropping Wolff, and steps away.

**‘He killed Jenny.’**

“I know that,” Jazzy says, voice strained as she looks up toward the bright blue sky. “I know he did but I can’t put my friends through this. They shouldn’t have to watch something so gruesome.”

**‘You don’t think it’s gruesome.’**

“My head’s fucked up.”

“Your friends, huh?” Levina says, pushing herself away from the Electro-shaped hole in the wall. “I knew about Harry, but who’s the other guy?” She eyes Jazzy from the corner of her eye. “Your boyfriend?”

“Leave them alone,” Jazzy growls. Her ears pick up sirens in the distance.

“Why would I do that?” Levina slowly floats toward Flash and Harry, sparks shooting from her body and breaking the street lights. Arcs of electricity connect her to the ground.

“No!” Jazzy shouts, running at her and jumping onto her back, Anguish coating her skin. Electro twists in her grip, flashes of electricity blinding Jazzy but she holds on. 

Jazzy makes out Anguish’s pink claws hiding her own fingers and drags them down Levina’s back. Her scream silences all other noises, echoing in Jazzy’s mind. Dancing Spider pushes off of Electro, sending her spinning away. Jazzy lands in front of Harry and Flash, Anguish’s body disappearing except on her arms.

Wolff stands, brushing debris off his body. Jazzy hones in on him, preparing herself to tackle him. She tenses her legs.

“Teddy!” Levina shouts, slumped against a wall with weak sparks flickering around her. Wolff’s head whips toward her. He hurries to her side, ignoring Jazzy. Wolff wraps an arm around Levina’s waist, practically carrying her away from the street and down an alley. Jazzy straightens up, making to follow them.

“Wait!” Harry says. Jazzy turns toward him. “Don’t, do not, please, please, please. Not now, not today, now.”

Jazzy’s shoulders slump and the adrenaline eases away. Anguish’s claws retract. **‘Jazzy, they’re getting away.’** Jazzy ignores her symbiote, focusing instead on Harry’s shaking form and tear filled eyes.

“Okay,” Jazzy says, voice soft. “I’m here.” She looks between him and Flash. “Are you okay? Is Li--the puppy okay?”

“He’s okay,” Harry whispers. “I’m, I am, uh, I think I’m okay.”

“I’m alright,” Flash replies. “Have you seen Jazzy? Our friend.”

“I, uh,” Jazzy stares at him, unsure how to respond. She looks at Harry and he tilts his head toward the street. She looks back at Flash and the impatience swimming in his eyes for an answer. “Let’s, um, go someplace safer.”

**‘Are you going to tell him?’**

“I don’t know,” Jazzy mutters. She beckons for her friends to follow, leading them away from the restaurant and broken walls. Dancing Spider slips through alleys and toward Eddie’s apartment. She watches Harry and Flash, the former setting Link down on the ground so he can walk alongside them.

“I think we’re safe now,” Flash snaps after walking for a few blocks.

“I know,” Jazzy responds.

“Then where the hell are you taking us? If it isn’t to our friend then I’m leaving.”

Dancer halts. She turns around. “I need to get you someplace where no one can see us, okay? Just trust me for a bit.”

“What are you going to do to us?” Flash asks.

**‘We could eat him, do what he’s thinking about.’**

“I just need to tell you something. I won’t do anything bad, Harry can tell you that.”

Flash looks over at Harry. Harry nods and starts walking again, prompting Jazzy to do the same. “You never answered my question.”

“She’s fine,” Jazzy replies. Jazzy leads them to the alleyway where Eddie keeps his motorcycle. She heads up the fire escape and easily opens the window into Eddie’s apartment. Harry follows, carrying Link. Flash stand outside in a moment of hesitation before following as well.

“What are we doing in Eddie’s apartment?” he asks, looking around at the familiar surroundings.

“Don’t worry,” Dancing Spider says, raising her hands in a placating manner. “He gave me a key.” She holds her hand out in front of the iridescent section of her suit and a tendril sneaks out, dropping the apartment key into her palm. “See?”

Flash crosses his arms, brows set low and a frown where his normal grin usually rests. His eyes flash with impatience and anger. “What the hell did you want to tell us?”

“Just you, actually,” Harry mumbles, sitting down on the couch and unhooking Link’s leash. Flash barely moves.

**‘You are going to tell him. Why?’**

“Because I like him and he likes Venom,” Jazzy replies, words barely passing her lips.

“Whatever the hell you wanna tell me, get it out already, I need to make sure that my friend is okay,” Flash says, voice edging on shouting.

Jazzy taps her foot. “Okay, well, here’s the thing,” she starts, looking over at Harry who gives a helpless shrug. “I want to tell you about one thing, but in order to explain that one thing I have to explain this first, and I’d have to do that anyway, given the circumstances,” Jazzy rambles. She takes a deep breath. “You wanna know where Jazzy is, well, I’m right here. This is my job.”

Flash’s brows pull down further and his eyes lose some of their anger. “What?”

Jazzy pushes her hood back and Anguish retracts the mask. “I’m here, I’m fine, also before you say anything I gotta tell you that I also have a symbiote.”

Flash’s arms fall to his sides. His mouth moves with silent questions. Jazzy lowers her own hands, twisting them together. “You what?” Flash finally gets out.

Jazzy smiles sheepishly. “Her name’s Anguish.”

“And you were, you were going to, going, gonna,” Harry stutters, screwing his face up. “Gonna eat...him, that guy.”

“Yeah, because he killed Jenny,” Jazzy defends.

Harry’s face clears. “Oh.”

“Hold on, backtrack, when did all this happen?” Flash asks, waving his hand around.

“Uh, Levina, Electro, whatever you wanna call her, you saw her, she experimented on my pet peacock spider, he then bit me and I got spider powers around Halloween,”   
Jazzy explains. “Then after Kasady almost killed me, I almost died because of an alien virus or whatever that only symbiotes are immune to I guess, so I bonded with Anguish.”

Flash looks up at the ceiling, gears turning in his head. “Eddie never said there were more symbiotes on Earth.”

“I guess there weren’t,” Jazzy confirms. “Carnage and Anguish are Venom’s spawn.”

“Carnage?” Flash asks. “You’re really just throwing these names at me.”

“Carnage is Kasady’s symbiote, because he has a symbiote too.”

“You ask, asked about Carn-Carnage, but not Venom’s, Venom has children,” Harry notes.

Flash shrugs. “Yeah that’s not surprising.” He walks over and sits down on the couch. Jazzy joins, Anguish shedding the disguise of her suit. “Eddie and Ven are, uh, together.”

“What?” Jazzy says.

**‘Told you they were close.’** Anguish materializes, stretching out from somewhere between Jazzy’s shoulder blades. Flash stares at her, eyes wide with amazement. **“They’re here.”**

The door to the apartment opens and Eddie walks through, carrying several bags of groceries. “...and we could always track them down, get info that way.”

**“Hey Dad,”** Anguish greets.

Eddie turns around, heading for his kitchen cart. “Hey, what are you guys doing here? Flash, when did you get to San Francisco?”

“Earlier this month,” Flash says with a shrug, eyes continuing to follow Anguish’s bobbing movements.

“Wanted to tell Flash some things and figured here would be the best place,” Jazzy answers Eddie’s first question. “Yanno, spider and symbiote things.”

Eddie nods. “Flash gets along with V pretty well.”

**“Yes he does,”** Venom confirms, inky head wrapping around his host’s shoulders. Venom stretches out until his head finds its way between Harry and Flash. **“Hi Flash.”**

“Hey Venom,” Flash greets. “You have kids now and you didn’t tell me?”

Harry snorts. “I’m surprised, shocked, that Jazzy, didn’t, like, didn’t tell you when you, you called.”

“I forgot,” Jazzy says with a shrug. “Also would’ve been difficult to explain Anguish at that time.”

**“You could’ve just told him then,”** Anguish mentions. **“I don’t understand why you keep it a secret.”**

“Because people suck,” Jazzy deadpans.

“I think a better explanation is that people would try to kill us and possibly experiment on us,” Eddie says, amusement coating his words. “Not all people though.”

“Just people like my dad,” Harry sighs.


	11. Chapter 11

Jazzy wakes up to the smell of French toast and the sight of Flash’s sleeping face. She smiles blearily, rolling onto her back and stretching her arms over her head, mouth opening in a yawn. Her back pops and she groans in relief. Settling back into the covers, Jazzy looks back at Flash as he snores softly, soft sunlight playing across his waves of strawberry blond highlighting them gold. His lips are slightly parted and tipped downward, so different from his cocky grin and angry scowl. Flash’s tan skin is smooth, free of all worries. Jazzy can’t help but smile, thinking how much he looks like Apollo in the early morning sun.

Harry enters his room with a tray piled with French toast. He sets the tray down at the foot of his bed before looking up and staring at Jazzy.

“Are you just,” Harry whispers, catching Jazzy’s attention, “staring at Flash?”

Jazzy blinks up at him. “Yeah, so?” she mutters back.

Harry raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything. He sits down, swinging his feet onto the bed, parallel to Jazzy’s side. Jazzy pushes herself up against the headboard as well, pillow cushioning her lower back. Jazzy grabs the tray and brings it closer, resting it on her knees. She takes a triangular piece and bites into it.

“Not gonna lie,” she says around her mouthful, “this is the best French toast I’ve ever had.”

“Thanks,” Harry say, taking a slice of his own.

“You really should open up a café,” Jazzy murmurs, taking another bite. Anguish rumbles sleepily in her chest. “I’d go there.”

“Even if it’s in New York?” Harry teases, lips twitching.

“Even if it’s in New York,” Jazzy confirms. “I’m gonna come and visit you no matter what.”

**‘Eat more,’** Anguish grumbles. Jazzy smiles and shoves the rest of her slice into her mouth, chewing slowly and savoring the taste.

Flash rolls over onto his back with a snort. He groans and throws his bare arm over his eyes before blinking them open and squinting against the light. “Ugh, what time is it?” he grunts. His azure blue eyes travel over to them then down to the food. “Already made breakfast?”

“Yeah,” Harry says. “It’s almost ten thirty.”

“Good morning Flash,” Jazzy says, holding a piece of toast out to him.

He sits up and takes it, strands of hair falling across his forehead. “Thanks.” After taking a bite his head thunks back against the headboard and his eyes slip shut. He chews slowly and Jazzy watches, almost mesmerized, as his Adam’s apple bobs when he swallows.

“Jazlyn,” Harry chides. She turns to him. “Hey Flash, Jazzy was watching you while you slept.” Jazzy levels a half-hearted glare at him as she takes another bit of toast. She turns to find Flash staring at her with a half-smile formed.

“Were you?” Flash asks. Jazzy shrugs, briefly looking away. “Mmm, you were.” His smile widens and he bumps his knee into Jazzy’s leg. “It’s because I’m hot, right?”

“Like the sun,” Jazzy replies with a smirk.

“I have literally never seen you guys flirt as much as you do with each other,” Harry states sounding exasperated beyond belief. “And Flash flirts a lot.”

“Sometimes you just gotta have a flirting buddy, don’t you have one of those Harold?” Jazzy asks. Flash chuckles.

Harry rolls his eyes. “A flirting buddy. Really.” Harry sighs and looks up, tongue flicking out over his spider bites. “I guess Em-Jay’s my flirting buddy.”

“Ha! I knew you had one!” Jazzy exclaims, clapping her hands and sending powdered sugar across the blankets. “Shit, my bad.”

Harry laughs. “Don’t worry about it.” They continue eating in relative silence until half the French toast is gone. “I should get you a pole.”

“What?” Jazzy asks. “A pole?”

“For pole dancing, duh,” Harry explains with an eye roll.

“You pole dance?” Flash asks. “I’d like to see that.”

“Of course you would,” Harry mutters.

“I’m learning, so is Harry,” Jazzy explains. “So we’re not good at it.”

“Your stickiness sure helps though,” Harry laughs, “most of the time.” Jazzy grins and bumps their shoulders together. “I’m probably gonna get you a pole.”

“How do you control your stickiness levels?” Flash asks.

“Sheer will, and also it’s kinda habit, muscle memory now,” Jazzy says with a shrug. “Although lately I’ve been wondering about my silk.”

“Your silk,” Flash echoes.

“Yeah.” Jazzy moves the breakfast tray off her knees and over to Harry. She pulls her leg out from under the covers and twists it so she can see her ankle. “I have spinnerets here,” she says pointing at the small nubs by her Achilles’ tendon. “I looked up some stuff and spiders can make different types of silk so I wonder if I can too.”

Flash reaches over and runs a couple of fingers over the spinnerets. “Huh, weird.” Jazzy watches his fingers trace circles across her ankle, calloused fingers lightly tickling her skin.

“You’re both weird,” Harry states. “Why do you have them?”

“Anchor webs,” Jazzy answers distractedly. “For when I jump, in case I fall.” Jazzy blinks. “It’s a jumping spider thing.”

Harry hums. “Do you lay eggs?”

Jazzy’s head whips up. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“I don’t think so, why?”

“Because spider organs.”

“Oh right, that actually makes sense.”

“What?” Flash asks. “Spider organs?”

“Yeah, my heart and lungs and a few other things are spider-y, not very human, apparently I have like eight lungs.”

Flash stares at her, hand stilling. “Eight lungs. Spider organs. Wow, I’m learning so much about you.” He tilts his head. “Does Spider-Man have spider organs?”

“He might,” Harry replies. “Though his blood isn’t blue like Jazzy’s.”

Flash lifts his hand from Jazzy’s ankle to brush through his hair. She misses the weight and his touch.

**‘And you tell me you don’t like him,’** Anguish mutters.

“Oh my god, Guishy!” Jazzy exclaims. “Maybe you’re the one that does!”

**‘If I do it’s because of you.’** Jazzy groans and throws her head back.

“What did she say?” Harry asks, unable to contain his amusement. Jazzy shakes her head.

“We’re curious now,” Flash adds.

**‘Telling him would be fun.’**

“Don’t you dare, Anguish.” Jazzy looks at Flash. “I’m not telling you, she better not tell you, you’ll have to remain curious.”

**‘Buzzkill.’**

“Oh, _I’m_ the buzzkill?”

**‘Absolutely.’** Jazzy rolls her eyes.

Harry leans over. “Will you tell me?” he whispers into Jazzy’s ear.

Jazzy looks at him and squints. “Maybe.”

He leans back and nods. “Nice.”

“I’m so confused,” Flash says. “It’s too early for this.”

“Don’t you usually wake up at like five?” Harry wonders.

“Yeah, when my dad makes me,” Flash says. He sighs and stretches his arms over his head, shoulders popping. “I should probably workout.”

**‘I bet you’d like to watch that.’**

“Yanno what, Guish? I absolutely would,” Jazzy says. “I’ll come work out with you,” she tells Flash.

“Awesome,” he responds. “Harry?”

“Oh no, no no, I’d rather just play video games,” Harry says, eating the last piece of toast. Harry stands up and grabs the tray. He looks between Jazzy and the door. “Do you want to, like, lick the plate before I wash it?”

“Nah, you can go wash it,” Jazzy replies, waving her hand. “I don’t lick powdered sugar off plates, usually just salad dressing.”

Flash snorts then claps Jazzy on the shoulder. “C’mon, gym.”

“Is there a gym here?”

“Yes,” Harry replies from the doorway. “Didn’t you explore the entire house?”

“Apparently not,” Jazzy mutters. She follows Flash out of bed and heads to the guest room to change into some leggings and a sports bra. When she comes out Flash is already standing in the hallway in a pair of shorts and a Spider-Man compression tank. “Nice shirt.”

“Thanks.” Flashes gaze openly sweeps over her, so she does the same. “You look good.”

“Just good?” Jazzy teases.

Flash laughs and throws his arm around Jazzy’s shoulders. “You look spectacular, that better?”

“Marginally.” Jazzy leans into his side as they walk down the hall toward the home gym. “You don’t look bad yourself.”

**‘Is he beautiful like me?’**

“Yes he is, Anguish,” Jazzy responds. Flash looks down at her with an eyebrow raised. “She wanted to know if you’re beautiful like she is.”

“Beautiful huh? Not handsome or dashing?”

“Who says dashing anymore? And you’re both beautiful and handsome, Thompson.”

“Why thank you, Joyce.” Flash steers her toward the gym, not removing his arm. They enter a massive room with sunlight pouring in from the large skylight overhead. Jazzy looks around, seeing several punching bags laying down in one corner, a padded floor, a stationary bike, a treadmill, an elliptical, and several different weight using equipment. She also notices a pole glinting in the back.

“You see that?” Jazzy says, pointing at the pole. “That’s for pole dancing.”

“Good to know, care to give me a little show?” Flash asks with a smirk and a wink.

“Heh, rhyme,” Jazzy automatically responds. “Maybe after we warm up.”

The two do several stretches to warm up before Flash decides he wants to spar Jazzy. They do, wrapping their hands as Jazzy forces herself to barely hit Flash as not to do any actual harm. Jazzy keeps on her toes, consciously making an effort not to move each time her spidey sense goes off.

“You’re letting me hit you, aren’t you?” Flash asks, circling around Jazzy. “Why?”

“Because I can take your hits and I know you won’t actually hurt me,” Jazzy answers. “Also keeps me more focused.” They continue on for a bit, Jazzy once in awhile slipping up and flipping backward causing Flash to laugh each time. “How’d you get your name?”

“What? Flash?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh,” he dodges a half-hearted punch from Jazzy, landing his own against her solar plexus, “I outran the fastest kid in third grade when I was five. Nickname stuck, better than my actual name.”

“Which is…?” Jazzy prompts.

Flash grins. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Jazzy huffs a laugh before hitting him in the stomach. Flash stumbles backward. “Oh shit, that was a little hard.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Flash laughs. “Break?”

“Yeah, I could give you that show now, if you still want it.”

**‘I thought you don’t dance for people.’**

“When have I ever said that?” Jazzy asks her symbiote.

**‘You haven’t. Do I have to always remind you that I’m in your head?’**

“No reason to get sassy with me,” Jazzy says, rolling her eyes. “We didn’t bring water with us.”

“No we didn’t,” Flash agrees, unwrapping his hands. “It’s fine there’s a water fountain over there.” He points to the other side of the gym. “And yeah, I still want that show.”

“Alrighty,” Jazzy says before heading to the water fountain. She takes a long drag of water before heading over to the pole. She unwraps her hands as Flash gets a drink of his own.

**‘So why are you going to dance for him?’**

“Maybe it’s also for you,” Jazzy says without thinking.

**‘Oh?’**

Flash comes over and sits down on the ground, legs spread in front of him. He looks up at Jazzy and grins. “You gonna choose the song or can I?”

“Go for it DJ Flash,” Jazzy says, tossing him her phone and grabbing the pole, walking around it. She looks down at her clothes and sighs in relief where she sees no iridescence.

“You ready?”

“Sure thing, Flash man,” Jazzy says. “What song am I dancing to?”

“Had to go with a classic,” Flash says. Jazzy stops and stares at him, both hands on the pole. “Toxic,” he says with a chuckle.

“Oh my gods,” Jazzy laughs. “Of course it’s Toxic. Good thing I already have a routine for that though.”

**‘How is dancing for someone different than practicing?’**

“You’ll see,” Jazzy says. “Play the music.” Flash taps the screen and the song begins to play. Jazzy grins and begins swaying before rolling her body against the pole. She dances around the pole before wrapping her legs around the metal and spinning down toward the ground with her back parallel to the floor. She continues in much the same way, sometimes getting on the pole and leaning back, catching a glimpse of Flash’s eyes glued to her.

“How come I’ve never seen you dance before?” Flash wonders when the song ends and Jazzy lands on her feet, leaning back against the pole.

“Because I don’t really dance for people,” Jazzy states. “Except Harry but that’s different.”

“Yeah? Different how?” Flash asks with a smirk.

Jazzy feels heat rise to her face. “Oh, yanno, he’s, we uh, learn dances together.”

**‘You also danced for Jenny.’**

“You are absolutely right, Guishy,” Jazzy says. Flash quirks an eyebrow. “I danced for Jenny, with Jenny, I also danced with my friend Taylor. Plus for pep tunes when it was needed,” Jazzy rambles.

“So you’re telling me that I’m special.”

“Yeah, I guess I am.” Jazzy smiles at Flash.

Then her phone goes off, the high tone piercing, echoing through the gym and sending ripples across Jazzy’s skin as Anguish squirms and screams. Jazzy lunges at her phone as Flash tosses it toward her, tapping the screen until the sound stops.

“Holy shit!” Flash exclaims. “What the hell was that?!”

Jazzy stares down at her phone, eyes wide. “Emergency alarm, I have to go.”

**‘You need to change that tone,’** Anguish growls, wrapping around Jazzy’s body. Anguish practically forces Jazzy to move toward the window as she keeps her eyes glued to the screen.

Flash stands up and walks over to the window with her. “Emergency alarm? For what?”

Jazzy looks up at Flash, allowing Anguish to take her phone. “Harry.” Anguish slides the window open. “He said he’s at Oscorp, we’ll be back as fast as we can.”

“Be careful, keep him safe,” Flash says as Jazzy jumps out the window and across the street. She looks back to see Flash closing the window, fear and worry evident on his face. Dancing Spider bolts across the roofs, making her way to Oscorp tower as quickly as she can, allowing Anguish almost total control.

“Can you track him once we’re inside the building?” Jazzy nearly shouts at Anguish.

**‘If he had part of me, yes, but he doesn’t.’**

“Shit!” Jazzy exclaims. Anguish takes full control of her legs as she hands Jazzy her phone. She opens the notification signaling Harry’s alarm, hoping something is there.

**‘Can you track his phone?’**

“I don’t know! Tech and science and shit isn’t my thing, Guish!”

**‘Calm down and think.’**

“How are you _not_ not calm?”

**‘I’m not, but someone needs to think rationally or we can’t help him. And you know what could happen if we can’t.’**

Jazzy sucks in a breath of air. She stops across the street from Oscorp. “Then what the hell do we do?”

**‘Peter might know.’**

Jazzy nods, calling Peter. He answers quickly. “Hey, Jazzy? This your number?”

“Yes, my number, can you track Harry’s phone, specifically what floor of Oscorp he’s on?” she immediately asks, not even bothering to give her own greeting.

“What?”

“Just, please can you or can’t you?”

“I can, just give me a sec,” Peter replies. Jazzy hears typing coming from his end. “Is Harry okay?”

“I don’t think so,” Jazzy says, voice shaking.

Peter breathes in deep. “Okay, uh, basement six…? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Thank you, Peter,” Jazzy says before hanging up. Anguish takes her phone and Jazzy drops down next to the building. Anguish retreats before Jazzy walks into the building and makes her way to the nearest elevator. “Basement six, KARI,” Jazzy says as the door shuts.

“You are not authorized,” KARI replies.

“Fuck, KARI!” Jazzy shouts, anger and frustration bubbling up. She slams her fist against the screen showing the AI’s face. “Basement six!” The elevator begins moving down and Jazzy crosses her arms, leg jumping up and down.

_Moving too slow, this damn fucking elevator._

The door dings open and Jazzy steps out, searching the area for any security cameras. Anguish clothes her in her suit when neither of them find any and Jazzy runs down the hall lit with dim green lights.

**‘Like a horror movie, right?’**

“Yeah.” She slips around the corner, heading toward the singular room at the end with glass walls and flickering lights. Jazzy sees a familiar figure, back to the wall. She slams the door open to find the Goblin standing over a control panel and Harry in a separated room, banging on the presumably sealed door. “Goblin!” she growls.

Goblin turns around, lips stretching wider. “You’re too late.” His finger presses a green button and the hiss of gas sounds from the adjacent room. Harry backs away from the door, eyes wide as he looks up at the ceiling. A stream of green gas pours into his room.

“No!” Jazzy yells, the word ripping out of her throat with animalistic ferocity. She lunges toward Goblin, fist knocking his head to the side and him to the ground. “What did you do?!” Her fists continuously land against his face, Anguish’s own covering hers.

“I’m making him stronger,” Goblin says, grin filled with deep red blood. Jazzy grips his neck, Anguish’s claws digging down and piercing through his mask and skin, blood pooling below them.

“I can make you bleed now,” Jazzy growls, Anguish’s own voice underlying her words. Jazzy raises her fist when she hears Harry begin to cough followed by the thud of his knees hitting the floor. Jazzy rushes to her feet and to the door. Harry is curled on the ground inside, body wracked with coughs. She bangs against the glass. “Harry!”

Goblin cackles from the floor, watching Jazzy hit the glass. “Ballistic glass,” he sing-songs. “Almost unbreakable.”

Jazzy hits the glass once more, staring at Harry inside. She storms over and grabs the Goblin by his collar, lifting him up. “Get him out.”

“Not before the process is complete.”

Jazzy can see Harry still, no longer coughing, not appearing to be breathing. The green gas seeps out of the room. She slams the Goblin against the wall. “Get him out now!” Goblin grins, looking into the room as well. He presses a button and the door opens. Jazzy drops the Goblin and rushes inside, kneeling down next to Harry. She turns him onto his back. “Harry, Harry, wake up, please, wake up,” Jazzy mutters, combing his hair out of his face.

**‘He’s breathing,’** Anguish informs. Jazzy sighs in relief.

“Harry, c’mon.”

“There’s nothing you can do,” Gobin says, stumbling into the room and leaning against the doorframe. “The process is already complete.”

Jazzy whips her head to look at him. “What if...whatever the hell you did kills him?”

“Then he’s not strong enough or worthy of being my son.”

“Your son?”

“Goblin serum,” Goblin replies, laughing.

Harry’s eyelids flutter and a few weak coughs escape his throat. Jazzy returns her attention to her friend as his eyes open, glowing. “Dancing...Spider…” he barely gets out. “What…?”

“I got you,” Jazzy says before looking back up to Goblin. “Stay right here.”

“O-okay,” Harry coughs.

“Goblin,” Jazzy says, “fix it.”

“Can’t, it’s irreversible.”

Jazzy stands up, Anguish covering her arms. **‘We should kill him.’**

“Yeah, we should,” Jazzy agrees. She rushes at him, jumping up and kicking him backwards. Goblin falls to the floor and looks up, grinning. Jazzy stalks over toward him, pinning him down to the ground with claws extended over his face. “We’re gonna fucking kill you Goblin.”

“Feel free to,” he replies, grin not fading, “but Harry might not survive if you do.” As if on cue, Harry falls into another coughing fit, coughs dry and heaving coming from deep in his chest.

Jazzy’s grip tightens around the Goblin’s throat. “Is there a cure?”

Goblin’s grin widens. “No.”

Jazzy hisses and bashes his head against the ground before rushing back to Harry’s side. “Harry, Harry, talk to me.”

“Get me out of here, please,” he rasps between coughs.

“I can’t leave Goblin,” Jazzy states.

“Yes you can,” Harry responds. He convulses, curling in deeper on himself.

**‘We could eat him, take him with us, I can hold the Goblin.’** Jazzy scoops Harry into her arms, standing up and heading toward the hallway. She stops at Goblin’s seemingly unconscious form.

“Keep him hypnotized,” she tells Anguish as a tendril of her symbiote lifts him up.

**‘You got it, Jazzy.’**

“What are you going to do with him?” Harry asks, eyes closed and voice quiet.

“Don’t know,” Jazzy answers honestly. “I’ll get you home.”

“That’s where I got him,” Goblin says almost dreamily. “Hidden away in his room.”

Jazzy stops and looks down at Harry. “Anguish, I told you to--”

**‘I’m trying, he’s too strong. But he’s sedated.’**

Goblin starts laughing, weak and high. “You made yourself stronger, so did I.” His laughter grows, sound mingling with random phrases barely audible.

Jazzy heads down the hall and toward the elevator, ignoring Goblin’s mindless rambles with Harry unconscious in her arms. She gets in the elevator and surveys the broken screen. “Emptiest floor,” she tells the AI.

“Yes, of...course,” KARI says, jilted. The elevator heads up and opens on the floor Jazzy knows Norman’s office to be. She heads out, looking around, and makes her way to the elder Osborn’s office, knowing that it is most likely empty, especially with Norman Osborn at home. They enter and Jazzy feels the Goblin squirm in her symbiote’s grip.

**‘I can’t hold him,’** Anguish warns, voice sounding strained. **‘I’m too hungry.’**

Goblin worms his way out of their grip, dropping to the floor. He looks up and says, “Thank you for bringing me here, Dancing Spider.” Goblin grabs the vial of green liquid from Norman’s desk, opening his grotesque mouth and pouring it inside.

Jazzy’s eyes widen. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Getting stronger,” Goblin responds, a small stream of the serum dripping down the corner of his mouth. “A little boost, if you will.” Goblin licks his teeth clean of his blood, standing tall and spreading his arms wide.

“Get us out of here,” Jazzy whispers to Anguish. 

“There’s no way out, Dancing Spider, you’re trapped!” Goblin exclaims gleefully. “Exactly where I want you.”

“You want me in Norman Osborn’s office? Why?” Jazzy asks as Anguish reaches over and slides the window open.

“Oh wouldn’t you like to know?”

**‘Window is open, time to go.’**

“I would, but unfortunately I have a date to make,” Jazzy responds, gripping Harry tighter and bounding out the window. The Goblin’s laughter follows her across the street, lifted by the wind. Jazzy doesn’t bother to look behind her, Anguish providing eyes on the back of her head as she leaps toward the Osborn penthouse.


	12. Chapter 12

“What the hell happened?!” Flash immediately asks as Jazzy lands in Harry’s room, setting him gently on his bed. “Is he okay?”

“Harry’s, uh, well the Goblin took him, from this room apparently, and gave him goblin serum,” Jazzy explains, Anguish shedding the spider suit around her. Jazzy slumps on the edge of the bed at Harry’s side. “Fuck, if I was just a bit faster, knew how to track his phone, anything,” Jazzy mutters, clutching her head in her hands, “Then Harry would be just fine, he’d be shaken but fine and nothing would’ve changed.”

“Hey, you can’t blame yourself,” Flash says. “You blame the damn fucking Goblin. Is Harry gonna be okay?”

“Yes, no, I-I don’t know,” Jazzy groans. “I don’t fucking know! And if he isn’t then it’s not like I can find a cure! Science isn’t my thing, it never was, so now I can’t save Harry no matter what.”

“Hey,” Flash says, grabbing Jazzy’s shoulders and turning her so she’s facing him. “You listen to me, Jazzy Joyce, if he’s dying, and that’s a big if, then you will find a way, we’ll find a way. Harry’s got more people to help him then just you,” he says, sounding angry, “and some of them _are_ science nerds. Don’t you _dare_ think you’re the only one that’ll help Harry.” They stare at each other, Flash’s hands digging into Jazzy’s shoulders.

Harry grumbles, turning over with his eyes screwing up. “No, no,” he whimpers. Jazzy and Flash whip around and stare as he writhes over his sheets, tangling them around his legs. Jazzy rests her hand on Harry’s shoulder, but her spider sense goes off as his arm lashes out toward her. Jazzy dodges, bumping into Flash.

**‘He’s gonna hurt you,’** Anguish growls protectively.

“He won’t,” Jazzy reassures. “Harry,” she whispers, hand returning to her friend’s shoulder. “Harry, wake up, you’re safe.”

“Hey bro, it’s Flash, we got you, man,” Flash says, shaking Harry’s leg gently. “Jazzy’s here too.”

Harry’s eyes spring open as he bolts upright, eyes wide and glowing like they were before. He looks wildly around him, trembling hands obsessively running through his hair. “He’s still here, he’s still here. Oh god, he’s watching me,” he mutters, almost too quick for Jazzy to catch.

“Harry, you’re okay, you’re safe now,” Jazzy says, forcing herself into his line of sight. His eyes dim but he doesn’t meet her own.

“No, no, never safe, not safe, he’s coming back, he’ll come to finish me.”

“Harry, bro, you’re freaking me out,” Flash says. “Why were your eyes glowing?”

Jazzy stares as her friend continues to mutter and tear at his hair. She notices his ears are more pointed than before and his nose appears more hooked. She catches a glimpse of his teeth, almost as sharp as Felicia’s. He looks like a goblin prince. “It’s already affecting him,” Jazzy whispers.

“What?” Flash asks.

“The goblin serum! Look at his ears.”

**‘He did say he wanted to make him his son.’**

“Fuck, Harry, look at me, please,” Jazzy nearly begs. He doesn’t, continuing to mutter nonsensical phrases. She turns to Flash. “What do we do?”

“You think I know?” he snaps back.

“Yeah, I do, you’ve known Harry a lot longer than I have.”

Flash sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “Call Parker.”

“Yeah, yeah okay,” Jazzy says, shoving her hands in her pockets and pulling her phone out.

Peter answers relatively quick. “What the hell was that previous call about?”

“I need you to talk to Harry,” Jazzy replies.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“He’s freaking out, won’t listen,” Jazzy sighs. “Look, the Goblin kidnapped him and...did shit.”

“What?! You couldn’t have led with that? Put me on speaker,” Peter demands. Jazzy does so. “Harry?”

Harry’s hands still, mouth finally closing. “Peter?” he asks, voice weak and nervous. “Peter where are you?”

“I’m still in New York,” Peter replies. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“The Goblin…” Harry trails off. “No, no, if I say anything he’ll come and get me! He’ll finish what he started!”

“Harry, hey, calm down,” Jazzy mutters.

“No! I can’t! The Goblin’s coming to get me, I can’t, I can’t.”

“Harry, hey,” Peter says, voice soft. “Don’t worry, he won’t get you, I’ll protect you, okay?”

“O-okay, okay Pete,” Harry nearly sobs. “He came to my room, and he, he, he took me to Oscorp, down to a floor I didn’t know existed, and then he locked me in a room, and, and…” Harry doubles over, sobs bursting from him. Flash pulls Harry flush against him. “They’re all so loud! They won’t stop, they keep saying I’m becoming like him, I can’t control it.”

“Harry, you’re gonna be okay, you won’t turn into the Goblin,” Peter states. “You’re better than him, kinder, warmer, everything about you is better than the Goblin.”

**‘Will he turn into a goblin?’**

“The voices in your head don’t dictate what you do,” Peter adds.

“Peter,” Harry sobs, “I just want to see you, let me come see you.”

“If you want to come here sooner, you can, I’m sure Aunt May will let you stay over.”

Flash looks over at Jazzy. Jazzy shakes her head and shrugs.

“Okay, okay, please,” Harry mumbles.

“I gotta go, Har,” Peter says. “I love you, pal.”

Harry sobs harder. “I love you too.”

Jazzy’s phone beeps, signalling the end of the call. “You’re going to New York sooner?” she asks tentatively.

“I’m sorry, I have to, okay Flash?” Harry responds.

“Yeah okay,” Flash replies, pulling Harry closer. “You gonna be okay, Jazzy?”

“Yeah, I’ll stay with Eddie,” she says. “Just as long as Harry’s okay, okay?” She raises her feet onto the bed. “Just give me a couple of days to move my stuff out, yeah?”

Harry looks up from Flash’s shoulder. “Okay, okay I can do that.”

Jazzy smiles briefly at Harry, disappearing before it even has a chance to stay. “I’m so sorry, I should’ve gotten there sooner.”

Harry shakes his head. “Not your fault.”

_But it sure feels like it._


	13. Chapter 13

Over the next few days Flash helps Jazzy move her boxes and clothes to Eddie’s small apartment and her storage unit. Harry tells his father that he’s leaving sooner with Flash on the private jet; Norman doesn’t seem too opposed. Jazzy finds herself waking up in the middle of the night often to see Harry staring at the window perched on the edge of his bed, muttering quietly to himself. She feels her worry and guilt eating away at her, letting Anguish take full control and go out at night to grab some food to numb the emotions, to try and forget.

“So, um,” Harry says soon after as Jazzy enters the kitchen to find Flash already sitting at the island, “since we’re leaving in a few hours I figured I’d, uh, make you some cocoa.”

“Thank you, Harry,” Jazzy says, sitting next to Flash. Flash’s arm comes to rest on her shoulders. “San Francisco will be weird without you.”

Harry smiles, placing a mug in front of Jazzy. “Weirder.” Harry sits down, sliding a mug to Flash and sipping from his own. “I’m going to miss you Jazlyn.”

“And I’ll miss you Harold. You too Flash,” Jazzy says, leaning into the latter’s embrace.

“Not gonna use his full name?” Harry wonders.

“Don’t know it.”

“Oh?” Harry says. “That’s a shame we can’t have that.” Jazzy looks over to see Flash roll his eyes as he takes a long drink of hot chocolate. “It’s Eugene.”

“Oh, like Flynn Rider,” Jazzy immediately says.

“Yeah, exactly like him,” Flash exclaims, eyes lighting up. “He’s the best.”

“Totally agree, I love that movie,” Jazzy says, smiling. “But yeah, I’ll miss you too, Eugene.”

They spend the next few hours relaxing in the living room, laughing and chatting about nothing in particular. Then Jazzy drives her motorcycle alongside the limo to Eddie’s apartment where the three of them, along with Link, head up to the reporter’s home.

“See ya Eddie, see ya Venom,” Flash says as him and Harry make their way to the door. “I better see you again, Jazzy.”

“Oh, you will,” Jazzy says with a wink. She throws her arms around Flash’s neck, lifting up onto her tiptoes. “You’re a good friend, Flash man.”

Flash picks her up and spins her around, yanking a giggle out of Jazzy’s mouth. “You too, Jazz. Don’t eat too many people, alright?”

Anguish forms on Jazzy’s shoulder as Flash puts her down. **“No promises.”**

“Fair enough,” Flash responds with a grin.

Jazzy pats Flash on the shoulder before turning to Harry. “And you, Harold Theopolis Osborn,” Jazzy says, “you better come visit me when I can’t visit you.”

Harry laughs. “You bet your ass I will, Jazlyn May Joyce.” Harry pulls her into a hug, bending over and burying his face in her neck. “I’m glad I met you on that trolley.”

“Fuck, me too,” Jazzy replies. “You stay safe, keep Midna safe, I love you, you beautiful rich bitch.”

“I love you too,” Harry chokes out. He leans down and picks Midna up. “Don’t let Link get eaten, and you better be careful too.”

“I’ll try my best. Have a safe flight you two.” Harry and Flash wave before heading out of the apartment and away to New York.


	14. Chapter 14

Jazzy walks up to the thick metal door, rapping her knuckles against it. The hatch slides open and familiar purple eyes greet her. Anguish’s face overtakes Jazzy’s for only a moment. The hatch closes and the door opens. Jazzy steps inside, nods at the man, and heads to the bar as Anguish wraps herself around in the form of a hoodie. Jazzy immediately makes her way to the furthest booth. She sits down and taps her fingers against the wooden table, watching the entrance.

**‘What’s this place called anyway?’** Anguish asks her.

“Don’t know, I’ll ask Abalos,” Jazzy replies. “Hungry? You can get yourself some food, just ask the ‘tender.”

**‘Thank you Jazzy.’**

“No problem.” Anguish stretches out, head winding through the crowd of aliens to speak to the bartender. “Nothing too expensive though.” Jazzy’s eyes flicker back to the entrance as a lithe man enters, grinning and sauntering toward the bar, red curls dripping something that looks like blood. Jazzy stiffens, fingers stilling. “Kasady,” she mutters.

Anguish comes back with a large tray carried in her hand. **“Kasady? The one who almost killed you?”**

“There are a lot of those, actually,” Jazzy mutters. “But yeah, him.”

**“We can take him.”**

“No fighting rule,” Jazzy states. Anguish removes the lid from her tray, digging into what looks like a pile of raw meat smothered in chocolate. At least she hopes it’s chocolate. Jazzy watches Kasady as he talks to the bartender, his own symbiote materializing and resting on his shoulder matching the red of his hair. The symbiote turns and looks at Jazzy, white eyes narrowing. The bartender places a large plate filled with some alien food in front of Kasady. He takes it then makes for Jazzy’s booth.

“Another symbiote,” Kasady states, sliding in across from Jazzy. “Didn’t realize there were any more.”

“Get away from me,” Jazzy says, voice hard. Anguish looks up and stares at the other symbiote. “You’re not welcome here.”

“I’m as welcome here as you are,” he says, grinning.

**“You hurt Jazzy,”** Anguish growls, still focused on the other symbiote. **“I should hurt your host too.”**

**“Go ahead,”** the other symbiote replies, voice surprisingly more feminine than Jazzy anticipated. **“Get kicked out of the bar, we’ll beat you.”**

“Anguish, relax,” Jazzy says. 

**“You’re not,”** she replies. **“Abalos is here.”**

Jazzy glances toward the door and sees the Sandman, waving at him. He waves back and heads over to the booth. “You’re in my friend’s spot, Kasady, move.” 

“I don’t think I will,” he replies. “I don’t remember hurting you. I think I would remember another symbiote.” 

Anguish’s eyes narrow to slits. **“I’m your sister.”**

“Oh? So you know Daddy dearest?” Kasady wonders, though his question sounds more like a statement. 

“So what if we know Venom?” Jazzy responds. 

“Just Venom or Eddie too?” 

“Both, and they don’t try to kill us.” 

Abalos walks up to Jazzy, standing at her side. “Who’s this guy?” 

“Cletus Kasady, psychopath, murderer,” Jazzy states. 

Kasady grins. “All of those things and more.” A drop of blood lands on his cheek from his wet hair. “I’m her big bro.” 

“Don’t say that,” Jazzy responds, shaking her head. “We’re not related.” 

**“Aren’t we?”** the red symbiote chimes in. 

“Red’s right, you’re my little sis just like Eddie’s my dad. Our dad.” 

Abalos looks between them before sighing and heading toward the bar. “I’m getting a drink.” 

**“I agree,”** Anguish says reluctantly. **“Same parent, same family.”** Jazzy frowns. **“Just saying.”**

“I should call the police,” Jazzy states. 

“You probably should,” Kasady replies. “But then you’d get all these other people arrested, including your friend. Tough choices, huh?” 

**“We’d just kill them anyway,”** Red adds. **“You too.”**

“Fuck! Okay, fine then I guess we talk or whatever the fuck,” Jazzy concedes. “Why aren’t you attacking anyone?” 

“That’s not all I do,” Kasady replies. “I still think I would remember another symbiote.” 

**“We bonded after you hurt her,”** Anguish explains. Abalos comes back to the booth. Jazzy scoots over, making room for him to sit down. **“Hi Sandman.”**

“Really? That’s what you’re calling me?” He sighs and rolls his eyes, taking a swig from his drink. “We could move to another booth, Jazz.” 

“No, it’s fine,” Jazzy replies, not taking her eyes off the serial killer. “This gives me a rather safe opportunity to learn more about him.” 

“If you know Daddy then you could just ask him,” Kasady suggests. 

**“He probably wouldn’t say, doesn’t tell anyone anything,”** Red says. The symbiote snatches up some of Anguish’s food, laughing when the latter snaps at her. Anguish’s form becomes more solid, arms and hair appearing. She lunges at Red, claws ripping lines through the older symbiote’s amorphous flesh. Red’s arms materialize as well, scratches staying briefly on her shoulder as her black toothy grin takes over most of the symbiote’s face. 

“Anguish! Hey, no fighting,” Jazzy admonishes. Anguish looks back at her. 

**“Took my food.”**

“I know, still, no fighting. We can always get more food.” Anguish grumbles but slumps back toward her host. Jazzy turns to Abalos. “So, why’d you wanna meet?” 

“I figured your protection includes making sure we have a safe place to stay,” Abalos says. “I’m out of units.” 

“Okay, I’ll transfer you some.” Jazzy does so, quite easily. Abalos thanks her. “That’s why you steal huh? For the money?” 

“Yes,” Abalos confirms. 

“Not because it’s fun?” Kasady chimes in. “Tell me, little sis, isn’t biting peoples’ heads off and feeling the crunch of their skulls fun and satisfying? Isn’t the blood spray just beautiful?” 

Anguish hums dreamily. **“It definitely is.”**

Jazzy bites her lip. “Beautiful and fun aren’t the words I’d use to describe it. Satisfying, though.” She blinks. “Wait, no, I’m not like you.” 

“You have a symbiote,” Kasady states. “You’re at least something like me.” 


	15. Chapter 15

“Yanno, Eddie,” Jazzy says while mindlessly searching the internet on his couch, “I’m curious, how’d you and Venom get together?”

Eddie swivels his chair to look at Jazzy. “I told you how we bonded.”

“No, no, I mean like, how’d you start dating?”

Eddie slowly blinks at her. “How’d you find out about that?”

“Flash.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Eddie mumbles. “It just kind of...happened I guess. We feel each other’s emotions, and when I accepted them, then it wasn’t hard to figure out the rest. Other than we share the same body and V’s an alien, but whatever.”

Venom peeks over Eddie’s shoulder. **“We make it work.”**

“Also, happened pretty quickly after we bonded.”

**“Probably helped that I kissed you.”** Eddie nods. **“Why? Do you love Anguish?”**

Anguish rumbles softly. **‘Do you?’**

“Like you love Eddie? Hmm...probably not,” Jazzy replies. “But as a friend, sure.” Jazzy feels a brief twinge of sorrow and disappointment come from Anguish before she feels nothing at all. _You okay, Guish?_

**‘Fine,’** comes the stiff reply. Jazzy mentally prods at her symbiote but gets nothing in return. The lack of anything from Anguish makes Jazzy feel...empty. The same sort of emptiness she felt after Jenny died.

Jazzy puts her phone down. “Hey, Guishy, what’s wrong?”

**‘You’re in my head, figure it out,’** she responds, all but bitter sounding.

“I can’t, you’re blocking me.”

“Then give her some space,” Eddie chimes in, turning his chair around and continuing to type up and article. “She’ll let you know when she’s ready.”

“But I’m not getting anything,” Jazzy nearly whines. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“I know,” Eddie assures.

“Oh, Eddie?”

“Yeah?”

“Can Link stay here during school? I trust Venom not to eat him.”

Eddie looks over at the puppy eating out of his metal bowl in the kitchen. “Yeah, okay. Got that, V? No eating the dog.”

**“Fine.”**

“Thanks, Dad,” Jazzy says. Eddie stares at her. “What?”

“Why’d you call me Dad?”

“Because, uh, you kinda technically are.”

Eddie turns around and points a finger to the ceiling. “You can only call me Dad if you marry Anguish, got that?”

“That’s fair.”


	16. Chapter 16

“Hey Jazzy,” Gwen greets as she carries a box into their new dorm. Jazzy looks up from her organization of dishes.

“Hey, Gwen, how was your summer?”

“Fun, got to hang out with my family and Billy,” Gwen says. “What about your’s?”

“Eventful, got to see Flash again, got a puppy,” she responds with a smile. “His name’s Link and Eddie’s watching after him.” Jazzy closes the cupboard. “And I’m so excited to be in an apartment.”

“Gods, right?” Gwen says, walking down the small hallway to her private room. Jazzy heads back to her own, just across the kitchen, and grabs a few pots and pans, shoving them under the sink. “Can you help me out with the rest of my stuff?” Gwen asks, coming back into the kitchen.

“Sure thing.” She follows Gwen down the stairs and to her car, grabbing a couple of boxes and leading the way back up. “Do you want me to put these anywhere specific?”

“Nah, anywhere in my room is fine. I’ll figure out where to put stuff later.”

Jazzy continues to bring Gwen’s boxes up before they both focus on unpacking and organizing their rooms. Once Jazzy finishes she knocks on Gwen’s door.

“Yeah?” Gwen says, briefly glancing up from setting her desk area up.

“Wanna get some lunch?”

Gwen straightens up and brushes her hair out of her face. “Sure,” she says with a smile. “Where to?”

Jazzy ends up driving them both to the Roasted Haven where they drink iced coffee and eat pastries and salad. They catch each other up on their summers, Jazzy leaving out anything relating to Anguish and Dancing Spider.

“I can’t even imagine what it must be like to live with Norman Osborn for three months,” Gwen says, shaking her head and sipping her coffee.

“Hah, he was the worst part of my summer,” Jazzy tells her. “Or, one of the worst parts. Electro blowing up Flying Fish when I was hanging out with Flash and Harry was pretty bad too.”

“Geez, sounds like it,” Gwen says. “All I had to worry about was my dad getting caught in some really intense skirmishes between Spidey and whatever villain he was fighting. He’s alright though.” Gwen stabs at her salad. “You seem pretty relaxed about almost dying.”

“Yeah, well, figured I should get used to it if I’m gonna be an investigative journalist, yanno?”

“Is the job really that dangerous?”

“If you’re enough of a dick, yes,” Jazzy replies. “Also if you go after, like, super important powerful people like Norman Osborn.”

“Maybe he has nothing to hide,” Gwen suggests.

“Oh, he does,” Jazzy states, mind wandering back to him looming over her with hands gripping her neck. She absently rubs at her throat, feeling his touch.

**‘I would’ve protected you,’** Anguish mutters, pushing away the memory and sending warm feelings through Jazzy’s mind.

_Thank you._

**‘You are welcome, and I would do anything for you.’** Jazzy feels the unspoken word attached to the end; _love._ It makes her heart ache.

“What did he do?” Gwen asks, tentatively. “You seem so sure that he’s got something to hide.”

“Yeah, found some things out about him when I was living there.” Jazzy briefly ponders whether she should tell her roommate about that night. “He abuses Harry,” she decides on telling Gwen instead.

“Oh,” Gwen replies, eyes widening a fraction, fork freezing above her greens. She looks down. “Good thing he’s in New York now, right?”

“Yeah,” Jazzy agrees. “I miss him though.” She slowly chews her salad, grilled chicken tasting much better than the greens, though that’s probably due to Anguish. “What’s Billy like?”

Gwen smiles. “Billy’s nice, stupid funny,” Gwen starts, “and he’s been with me through everything. He actually handled losing his arm pretty well, but it was still rough, yanno? He’s pretty stubborn, refuses to use a prosthetic.”

“How’d he even lose it?”

“Really bad car crash,” Gwen answers. “His parents are both scientists and have been trying their best to find a way to make any of it better, but honestly? I think he won’t accept anything unless it’ll give him his arm back. Like I said, stubborn.” Gwen taps her chin. “Actually, his dad, Doctor Connors is a professor at ESU. I wonder if Harry will have him as a professor.” She shakes her head, lips quirking upward. “Billy always tells me, ‘Don’t be a bird Gwennie, only birds give shits.’”

Jazzy snorts. “I’ve never heard that before.”

“He says it whenever I’m overthinking or worrying too much,” she says, smile widening. “I hope you can meet him sometime.”

“That would be fun,” Jazzy says. “Maybe during a break? I’m probably gonna go to New York at some point this year.”

“Yeah! That sounds like a great idea, and then maybe I can meet Flash.”

Jazzy laughs and the two continue eating and chatting and speculating about the school year to come. They compare schedules but find nothing in common, other than class times.


	17. Chapter 17

“Hey Eddie,” Jazzy greets as she walks into his apartment. “Sup, Venom,” she adds once the door is closed. Link bounds up to her and jumps onto her legs. “Hi Link!” Jazzy kneels down and scratches behind the pup’s ears as he slobbers over her face. “Eddie treating you well?”

“Yeah,” Eddie says. “I’ve taken him for walks too. What’s up?”

“I forgot to tell you, Harry entered my handprint into his home system, so I can go to the Osborn penthouse whenever without breaking in,” Jazzy says, leaning against the door and absently pushing Link around playfully as he nips at her hand. “And I saw Kasady again.”

Eddie stops on his way to the sink, glass in hand. He turns to her. “Where? When?”

“Wow, yeah I’m fine, thanks for asking, Eddie,” Jazzy mumbles. “It was a few weeks ago, a bit before school started. Nothing happened, but he found out about Anguish.”

“Seriously? Nothing?”

“Okay, well, we talked and he had blood in his hair,” Jazzy says, hitting the ground with her open palm and watching as Link runs after it with a smile.

**‘While we talked with Sandman.’**

“Yeah, that too,” Jazzy agrees. _But I don’t want him to know about that._

**‘Keeping secrets, Jazzy?’**

“Always.”

Eddie’s phone pings and Venom grabs it from his desk. Eddie fills his glass up in the tap while his symbiote holds the device up for him. Jazzy focuses on her puppy, laying down on the ground and allowing him to crawl over her. She giggles as he bites her hair.

“Oh, cool,” Eddie says, turning the faucet off.

**“Maybe Jazzy can come with us,”** Venom suggests. Jazzy tilts her head back, looking over at them. **“I think she’d want to.”**

“You’re right,” Eddie says, leaning over his kitchen cart. “Want to come to New York with us in a couple of weeks?”

Jazzy blinks, puppy claws raking across her face. “Are you serious? New York?”

“Yeah, I got an opportunity to, uh, I guess the best way to put it is I’m going to interview Tony Stark and also try to interview Spider-Man. Within a week.”

“I have classes,” Jazzy states. She shakes her head, patting Link’s own. “This is more important, school can fuck itself.”

Eddie laughs. “Jazzy, you do need to go to school.”

“Yeah I know, but it can fuck itself for a week. Which week?”

“Week after next, I could sign something if you need me to.”

“Yeah, probably, just like, write a note or something,” Jazzy says, sitting up and carefully lifting Link off of her. “Tell me everything Eddie! I gotta know! I gotta surprise my boys!”

“Your boys?” Eddie asks through thinly veiled amusement.

“Yanno, Flash and Harry,” Jazzy clarifies. “I’m sure one of them will know where Spidey is, with their fan club and all.” Jazzy rises to her feet and stands across Eddie, mirroring his posture with her arms crossed in front of her, resting on the cart. “Are we flying? You said plane noises are amo cualli.”

“Yeah, we figured out that it’s only bad if you’re not inside the plane,” Eddie explains. “So no one has to worry, as long as we have plenty of snacks.”

**‘Snacks are good,’** Anguish sighs. **‘Do you have snacks now?’**

“Snacks now?” Jazzy relays.

**“Yes, Eddie, snacks,”** Venom says, a tendril snaking out and opening the fridge. **“What do you want?”** he asks, grabbing a carton of milk and what looks like a whole lobster.

“Is that a lobster?” Jazzy asks.

“Yeah, we stole it from a restaurant. Still alive?”

**“Yes, Eddie,”** Venom replies.

Jazzy cranes her neck to look into the refrigerator. She hums, tapping the surface below her fingers. “Is that cheese? And chocolate pudding?”

“Yeah, you want it?”

“Yes,” Jazzy confirms. Venom grabs those too before closing the door and setting the food out between them. The lobster weakly moves around. “I can’t watch you eat that.”

**‘You can watch me bite people’s heads off, but not my parents eat a lobster?’** Anguish wonders, voice incredulous.

“Search my memories, you’ll find the answer Guish,” Jazzy replies. She reaches for the small wheel of cheese, grinning when she sees her favorite--apple smoked gouda. Jazzy rips the packaging open with ease as Eddie begins chugging down the chocolate milk.

**‘You watched lobsters boiled alive,’** Anguish finally says.

“Yup,” Jazzy says, biting into the cheese wheel. Anguish practically moans. Anguish takes control of Jazzy’s free hand to open the pudding. “Do you have whipped cream for the pudding?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.” Anguish opens the fridge and grabs it, nudging the door closed. The symbiote sets the can down beside the pudding.

They eat in relative silence, minus a few snide remarks from Venom, with Jazzy feeding bits of cheese to Link here and there. She eats half her pudding before mixing it with whipped cream, looking away when Eddie bites into the lobster like it’s nothing.

**“Do you have a lobster for me?”** Anguish asks, head peeking out from Jazzy’s side.

“We aren’t eating lobsters ever, Guish,” Jazzy says. “People are fine, lobsters are not.”

“I can understand dogs and cats, but lobsters?” Eddie asks.

“I watched a couple of lobsters boiled alive in high school, it wasn’t fun,” Jazzy explains. “And I like almost all animals better than humans.”

**“Almost all,”** Anguish echoes.

“Yeah, almost. Mosquitoes suck.” Jazzy’s eyes wander upward. “No pun intended.”

**“Don’t spiders eat bugs?”** Venom asks.

“Yeah, but I’m not gonna, they aren’t filling,” Jazzy states. “I do tend to kill them whenever I see them though… Really living up to my spider name, huh?”


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i did not realize this part was so damn long

“Have fun in New York,” Gwen says, hugging Jazzy. “Eat a hot dog, eat some pizza, don’t piss off my dad.”

“I’ll try my best,” Jazzy says. “And I’ll definitely have pizza.” Jazzy pats her roommate’s back before turning back to her mint green suitcase staring at her. She huffs. “I really hate airports.”

Gwen giggles. “Small price to pay, right?”

Jazzy laughs. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“What are you doing with Link?”

“Oh, we’re bringing him with us,” Jazzy explains. “Couldn’t leave him behind, Eddie found a hotel that allows pets and everything.” Jazzy grabs her suitcase and turns back to Gwen. “See you in a week.”

“Yeah, see you,” Gwen says with a smile and a tilt of her head. Jazzy gives her another quick hug before heading out of their apartment with her backpack slung over her shoulder.

She ties her luggage to the back of her motorcycle before heading to Eddie’s place and parking her bike beside his. Eddie comes down to meet her, his own suitcase and backpack with him along with Link in a crate. He hands the crate to her before heading out of the alleyway.

“I called a taxi,” he says.

“That’s smart,” Jazzy responds. The stand at the curb until the taxi arrives and they load their bags into the trunk. Jazzy brings Link’s crate to the backseat with her, setting it between her and Eddie.

“Airport please,” Eddie tells the driver.

The driver takes them to the stated destination just outside of the city. Jazzy stares out the window the entire time, a slight frown on her face.

**‘Why don’t you like airports?’**

“They’re just annoying, been to too many, been on too many planes,” Jazzy mumbles, words slurred from her hand pressing her cheek up.

The taxi pulls up to the airport and Eddie and Jazzy quickly take their things, pay, and head inside. The rest of the trip feels automatic to Jazzy as they check in, go through security, find their gate, find snacks and water, and board the plane. Jazzy puts her noise-cancelling earbuds in for the entirety of the flight, checking on Link every once in awhile. She glances over at Eddie to find him passed out.

Once off the rather long flight, Eddie calls another taxi and they check in to their hotel room. Jazzy collapses on her bed after letting Link out. She pulls her phone out.

**You in class?** She texts Harry.

**No done for the day he responds almost immediately. Why?**

**Curious. Whats your room number?**

**These are weird quesitons jazz** Jazzy stares and waits for a response. **307b**

**Cool** Jazzy sits up and looks over at Eddie staring out the window. “Hey, Eddie, I’m gonna go surprise Harry. And Flash.”

“Okay, don’t get lost, take your dog with you.”

Jazzy nods and grabs Link’s leash, hooking it to his collar. She puts in one earbud as she sets her GPS for Empire State University. She texts Harry again, **Flash out of class too?**

**Yeah but football practice** is Harry’s response. Jazzy grabs her purse before heading down to the street.

Jazzy finds her way to the campus with her hands in her pockets and Link walking alongside her, sniffing at nearly everything. He barks as some people pass him. Jazzy looks around at the buildings and realizes she doesn’t know which one holds the dorms.

**‘There’s probably more than just one building,’** Anguish says. Jazzy silently agrees. **‘Just tell him to come out here.’**

“Yeah that sounds like a good idea.” Jazzy pulls her phone out and dials Harry’s number. “Hey, man, could you come out to the campus green?”

“Hi, why?” Harry replies.

“Uh, yanno, I have a surprise waiting for you there.”

Jazzy hears the slam of a door. “I guess…? Seriously Jazzy, why are you being so cryptic today?”

“I have my reasons,” Jazzy answers, finding a bench to sit at. She closes her eyes and allows Anguish to search for Harry instead.

“Are you...is that...are you sitting on a bench?” Harry asks, incredulous. Jazzy smiles. “Oh my god, you totally are, that’s definitely Link, what the fuck.”

**‘Over there,’** Anguish points out. Jazzy opens her eyes and looks over to one of the brick buildings and sees his bright red hair and silver piercings glinting in the sun. She waves at Harry. He waves back and hangs up.

Harry jogs over to Jazzy, Link immediately jumping on him when he gets close enough. “Hey buddy!” Harry says, kneeling down and squishing the dog’s face. “You’ve   
gotten so big.” Link licks his face as Harry looks over to Jazzy. “Why are you in New York?”

“Eddie invited me along,” Jazzy explains. “Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see you again.” Jazzy stands up and kneels beside Harry, wrapping her arms around him. His arms come around her back. “You and Flash,” she adds.

Harry laughs before pulling back. “Hey! You can meet Peter!”

“And Em-Jay?”

“Yeah! And Harley.”

“Harley?”

“Peter’s brother,” Harry says, waving his hand. “They might be out of class.” Harry stands up and looks down at Link. “Animals aren’t allowed in the dorms, so I’ll make sure the coast is clear.” Harry leads her to his dorm, opening the door and quickly looking about before letting Jazzy in behind him. “Maybe carry him,” Harry whispers. Jazzy nods and picks Link up.

They walk up three flights of stairs and halfway down the hall, passing Harry’s room, before knocking on 304. The door opens, showing who Jazzy assumes is Harley; he has short dirty blonde hair and a total resting bitch face.

“Hey Harry, who’s that?” he asks, nodding toward Jazzy.

“I’m Jazzy,” she greets. “You’re Harley?”

“Yeah,” he replies. “If you’re looking for Peter he’s not here right now.”

Harry hums. “Can we come in anyway?”

Harley nods and shrugs, stepping aside. “Is that a dog? Like an actual dog? Harry what is with you and your friends sneaking animals in?”

“Pets are the best,” Harry says. “And Link is Midna’s wolf buddy.”

Harley snorts. “Oh my god.” He shakes his head. “You should tell Pete that she’s here.”

“Oh! You’re right,” Harry says, pulling his phone out and sending a quick text. “Don’t want him coming in smelling like shit.” Harry sits down on one of the beds, the sheets dark blue. The other bed has a total Iron Man theme going on.

“Someone likes Iron Man,” Jazzy mutters, sitting down on the carpeted floor.

“You’re damn right I do,” Harley replies, sitting on his own bed and crossing his legs. “He’s the fucking best.”

“I’m partial to the spiders myself,” Harry says with a smirk.

Harley rolls his eyes. “I know you are.”

“Jazz, when did you get here?” Harry asks.

“Like an hour ago,” she says. “Eddie’s hoping I can get you to tell me where Spidey is.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Harry says, eyes twinkling. “Peter would.”

“Yeah? Why?”

“Takes pictures of him, remember?”

“And then complains about Jameson,” Harley adds.

“Wait, I just realized something, since when did Peter have a brother?” Jazzy asks. “What?”

“Adopted,” Harley explains. “So, since last year.”

Jazzy narrows her eyes. “Which one of you is adopted?”

“Well, if you’re including May, then me. If you’re asking about our parents, then both of us.”

“That’s confusing,” Jazzy mutters. She leans her head against Peter’s bedpost. “What time does Flash get out?”

“Late,” Harry says. “Peter’ll probably be back before he’s done. Probably.”

Harley looks down at his phone. “Oh I gotta go, Dad wants me for something, top secret, cannot tell.” Harley stands up and slips on some converse. He stares at them.   
“Don’t, like, do weird shit. I’m trusting you on this Harry.”

“No worries, nothing bad’s gonna happen. Except maybe dog piss,” Harry replies as Harley walks out of the dorm. Harry beams down at Jazzy. “I can’t wait for you to meet Pete.”

“Can’t wait to see who you keep telling me about,” Jazzy responds.

They spend the next half hour or so talking about how their school year is going, what’s been happening around them, and just catching each other up in general. Harry expresses his jealousy over Jazzy’s kitchen. He winds up on the floor next to her, absently running his scarred hand over Link’s back.

“...and then Flash just ran into the fucking wall!” Harry ends his story about Spider-Man as the door unlocks. Jazzy laughs, heading banging back against the bed frame. Harry looks over at the door. “Hey, Pete!”

Jazzy watches as Peter’s face lights up under his crooked glasses. “Hey Harry!”

Peter turns to look at Jazzy. As their eyes meet a familiar, yet somehow foreign tingling starts at the base of her head. Jazzy squints, tilting her head as Peter does the same. The latter stumbles back slightly, a look of confusion washing over his face. Jazzy tries to look away, but finds her eyes glued to Peter’s. The tingling intensifies before leveling out, seeming to match a vibration coming from Peter. Jazzy’s eyes widen at the same time that Peter’s does.

“You’re like me,” they say at the same time, garnering a strange look from Harry.

Jazzy stands up and points at Peter. “You...does Harry know?”

“Yeah,” Peter replies. “Does he know about you?”

“Yeah, course he does.” They hold each other’s gaze. “You’re Spider-Man, you take pictures of yourself.”

“Hey, I gotta make money somehow,” Peter defends.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Harry says, standing up as well while waving his hands. “How’d you...figure out that he’s Spidey?”

“Spidey sense,” they say at the same time, looking over at Harry.

“You call it that too?” Peter asks.

“What else would I call it?” Jazzy asks. She turns back to Harry. “It’s like that time when I knew Spidey was, uh, yanno, the spidey sense just sorta tells me things sometimes.”

“When I was what?” Peter asks.

“Dying,” Harry replies. “And I snuck into my dad’s office and found Tony’s number.”

“Oh, right, yeah, I remember that,” Peter says, tilting his head and smiling. “Thanks, by the way, that was really bad.” Peter tosses his bag onto his bed and squats down, clapping his hand against his thigh for Link’s attention. “Hi, buddy, you must be Link.” Link trots over and warily sniffs him, but warms up pretty quickly. “So what’re you doing here, Jazzy?”

“Oh, came here with Eddie to do some journalism things, interview Tony Stark, maybe hopefully, I don’t know, interview Spider-Man,” Jazzy explains with a cheeky grin. “Heard you know where he usually is.”

Peter laughs. “Oh, I might.” He looks up. “Eddie Brock?”

“Yeah, Eddie Brock, surprised they let him back in New York honestly,” Jazzy confirms. Harry snorts. “So...Spidey interview alright?”

“You’ll have to find me first, then yeah,” Peter replies. “Maybe it’ll help get rid of the rep Mysterio got me.” Peter grimaces and Jazzy shifts on her feet rather guiltily.

**‘He said Spider-Man was trying to kill him,’** Anguish reminds. **‘Maybe that reputation was deserved.’**

“Yeah,” Jazzy says, responding to both her symbiote and Peter. “It’ll be hard though, since he’s dead and we can’t really get his side of the story.” Jazzy internally winces at her own lie.

“Yeah, but Jameson has a rep for stretching the truth and lying,” Harry adds. He leans against Peter’s bed. “Wanna, like, go get some food? I know you two are always hungry.” Harry gives a meaningful look at Jazzy.

“You got me there, Harry,” Jazzy replies. “Gwen said I need to eat a pizza.”

Peter lights up. “You totally do, a hot dog too if you eat as much as me. We could get a pizza from Eddie’s.”

“What?” Jazzy asks.

“Not that Eddie,” Harry clarifies. “Us and Em-Jay went on a pizza expedition to find the best pizza in New York last week and it was decidedly Eddie’s.” He looks briefly down at Link. “Let me just check on Midna first real quick.”

“Okay, Har, we’ll wait outside your dorm, yeah?” Peter responds.

“Yeah,” Harry says with a soft smile. Jazzy picks Link up and they head out, walking slightly down the hall and toward Harry’s room. Harry pulls out his key and disappears inside.

“So, how’d you get them?” Peter asks. Jazzy tilts her head. “Your powers.”

“Oh, uh so Electro, she was my roommate, I have a pet spider, his name is Stan and Gwen’s taking care of him right now, but she experimented on him and he bit me and then, boom! Spider powers,” Jazzy explains. “What about you?”

Peter laughs. “Yanno, I got them when I was fourteen and my class went on a field trip to Oscorp. The spiders got out, one of them bit me. Spider powers. Told Harry pretty much immediately after.”

**‘Harry mentioned the spiders getting out.’**

“Oscorp, huh?” Jazzy says. “Of course it was Oscorp.”

“Yeah, I’m just glad Norman didn’t find out about it. Probably would’ve wanted to make spider super soldiers.”

“That sounds terrifying actually.”

**‘Why does everyone seem to hate Norman? Why haven’t we eaten him yet?’**

“Norman gives me the creeps,” Jazzy responds to Anguish. “And he sets my spidey sense off constantly.”

“Seriously?” Peter asks. “I mean, he gives me the creeps too, very bad vibes, but he sets your sense off?”

“Yeah, man, but that might be because he tried to kill me, I don’t know.”

Harry comes out of his room. “What’re you guys talking about?”

“Your freaky as shit dad,” Jazzy replies, not missing a beat. “Are you sure I can’t kill him?”

“Wouldn’t it be better if you exposed him before killing him? Makes you not look like a bad guy,” Harry responds. Jazzy shrugs. “That actually reminds me,” he continues, walking down the hall. “What do you guys think about me getting a name change?”

“What? I wouldn’t be able to call you Harold?” Jazzy whines.

Harry laughs. “No, no, like, just my last name, change it to Lyman and disassociate myself with my dad.”

“I say go for it,” Peter says. “Harry Lyman, sounds great.”

“Really does,” Jazzy agrees. “I wholly support your choice to distance yourself from Stormin’ Norman. But why Lyman?”

“Mama’s maiden name,” Harry replies. “I won’t change my first or middle name because I know you guys love how ridiculous they are.”

“Also I’d still call you Harold,” Jazzy says with a shrug. “But alright, Harry Lyman, I’ll pass that on to Gwen and Chey?”

“Sure, I think I’ll get it changed sometime this month.” They step outside and Jazzy sets Link down on the pavement. “But right now all I need to be worried about is pizza.”

“And assassins,” Peter adds, wrapping his arm around Harry’s shoulders. “Don’t really want to deal with those again.”

“I...what?” Jazzy asks, quickening her pace to keep up with the taller men. “Assassins? Harry, have you not told me that you’re on peoples’ hit lists?”

“I thought I was being delusional,” Harry says with a chuckle. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Then someone actually shot at him,” Peter says. “They actually got me instead, bullet grazed my shoulder.” Peter tilts his head, glasses finally falling into place. “Not the worst injury I’ve had.”

“But have you had a building fall on you?” Jazzy asks.

“Yes I have, on Homecoming.” Peter hums. “And then I fought my date’s dad.”

“Oh that sounds too complicated,” Jazzy says.

“I don’t do complicated,” Harry states, shifting his weight onto Peter. “That was the Vulture, right?”

“Right. Kept stealing things, like a vulture I guess, I don’t know,” Peter shrugged. “He also flies, but he’s in jail now.”

“Technically prison,” Jazzy mutters. “Mechanical or organic wings? Why don’t I know about this guy?”

“You clearly didn’t do your Spider-Man research before coming here,” Harry says. “Eddie would be disappointed.” The two stop in front of Jazzy. “Oh, we’re here.”

“Mechanical and I am so ready for double pepperoni,” Peter says with an excited grin. “What are you gonna get?”

“Double pineapple, and…” Jazzy sends an unworded inquiry to her symbiote.

**‘Separate pizza with double pepperoni, large,’** Anguish replies. Jazzy nods and repeats.

“I want a veggie pizza,” Harry says with squinted eyes. “I don’t know why though.”

“You can eat eat two large pizzas?” Peter asks Jazzy.

“Don’t underestimate her eating power, she’ll eat five pizzas and still want more,” Harry says. “And almost get her hand bitten off trying to steal someone else’s.”

“Totally didn’t want to do that,” Jazzy replies. “But yeah, anything for the food.”

The trio heads inside and orders their pizzas--Harry paying for them--before sitting down in a corner booth. Jazzy sits across from Harry and Peter, the former continuously looking at Peter with soft eyes and a longing smile.

“So you’re gonna interview Mr. Stark?” Peter asks. “He’s great, really great actually.”

“Sounds like someone has a crush,” Jazzy jokes.

“Absolutely, definitely my first celebrity crush,” Peter laughs. He glances at Harry and smirks. “Well, one of them anyway. Who was yours?”

“Legolas,” Jazzy immediately replies.

A waiter comes out and sets their pizzas down in front of them, Harry’s veggie pizza the smallest of the four. Peter rubs his hands together before digging in. Harry and Jazzy follow suit; Jazzy takes a slice of her pepperoni pizza before she tries the pineapple.

She covers her mouth with her hand. “You’re right, this is really really good fucking pizza,” Jazzy says, words slightly garbled.

**‘Yes, we should have gotten more than two,’** Anguish agrees. **‘Invite our parents.’**

“Technically not mine,” Jazzy says, taking another bite.

“You what now?” Peter asks, staring worriedly at Jazzy.

“Don’t mind her, Pete,” Harry says, “she just talks to herself sometimes. So does Eddie, I think she picked it up from him.” He says the last part with a shit eating grin and Jazzy sighs.

“He’s right. It’s all Eddie’s fault. He’d love this pizza though. Eddie’s pizza, hah,” Jazzy snorts. She picks off a bit of cheese and feeds it to Link. “What do you like to do, Peter?”

“Me?” he says, eyes wide. “Uh, I’m majoring in chemical engineering, got a hobby with photos, and I fight crime,” Peter replies. He scratches the back of his neck. “I don’t know, what has Harry told you?”

“A lot, actually,” Jazzy laughs. “He loves talking about you.” Harry’s face turns red. “You like Star Trek, Flash doesn’t like you, you’re dating Em-Jay, Harley’s your adopted brother, and you live with your aunt, that’s pretty much all I know.”

“Used to live with my uncle Ben too, but he was killed,” Peter adds. “You meet Harley?”

“Yeah, he let us into your dorm,” Jazzy replies. “How else would we have gotten in?”

“I don’t know, climbed through the window? I do that often enough,” Peter states. “I play a lot of video games with Har.”

“That I also knew,” Jazzy says.

“Yeah, I mean, what else do I do?” Harry says. “My two favorite things, hanging out with Pete and playing games.”

“You also hang out with me and dance,” Jazzy says. “Or play video games. I get your point.” Harry laughs. “You gonna open up a disco café?”

“Actually,” Harry says, “funny you should ask ‘cause I was talking with Flash about opening a roller disco.”

“Seriously? He’ll actually be the DJ at your disco?” Jazzy asks, lips curling upward. “I was kinda joking about that honestly. What are you gonna name the place?”

Harry shrugs. “Don’t know, still in the process of finding a place to buy.”

“I can’t believe you’re actually going to open a roller disco,” Peter says, shaking his head. “A café I completely understand, like you make really good shit.”

“Why thank you Peter, too bad I can’t make wheatcakes though.”

“Wheatcakes?” Jazzy wonders.

“Like pancakes,” Peter says. “May’s are really good.”

**‘Get us some, Jazzy?’**

“Yeah, those sound good, I wanna try them.”

“Well, maybe sometime this week we could all go over to Aunt May’s,” Peter suggests. “If none of us are too busy.”

Jazzy’s phone rings. “Oh, that’s probably Eddie.” She takes her phone out and answers. “Yeah?”

“Where are you right now? I might have found a lead on Spider-Man’s location,” Eddie answers.

“I’m at Eddie’s pizza,” Jazzy says. “Where?”

“A couple of blocks away from ESU, guy called the Shocker is--” The rest of Eddie’s sentence is cut off by the sound of an explosion down the street followed by the familiarity of screaming civilians. “What was that?”

“I think that might have been the Shocker,” Jazzy replies, watching as Peter quickly shoves the rest of his pizza slice into his mouth before running to the restroom. “I think it’s safe to say that Spider-Man will show up, meet you on the street?”

“Yeah, I’m already there.”

**‘Can we eat him? The Shocker?’**

“We have been eating Anguish,” Jazzy mutters, grabbing a slice of pineapple pizza. “Watch the pizza and Link?” she asks Harry.

“Yeah, sure, do what you need to do,” Harry says, stretching out in his booth and slowly finishing off his own pie. “Pete just went to change, I’ll be safe.”

“Okay, don’t die, Harry.”

“Don’t get jumped by anyone.”

Jazzy runs out onto the street, someone running past almost slamming into her. Jazzy dodges through the straggling crowd and toward the source of the explosion. She looks up and finds Spider-Man swing onto the scene in his red and blue suit. She smiles.

“Hey!” Eddie shouts at her from the shadows. Jazzy runs over. “Well, there’s Spider-Man.”

“Yeah, wanna try and help?”

“As Venom and Anguish? You shouldn’t be Dancing Spider here, might give away your identity to someone,” Eddie says.

“That’s true. But no, I think I’ll stay as a civilian, I don’t want, uh, Spidey to find out about Anguish just yet, but you could sure help him,” Jazzy says. “Plus, I’ll need to ask if he’s okay with an interview afterward.”

**‘So we can’t eat the Shocker.’**

“No, Guish, we can’t.”

“Okay,” Eddie says, voice shifting to Venom’s. **“We’ll go help.”**

“Cool, I’ll be behind you,” Jazzy says. “Go get him Venom, and try not to eat anyone.”

Venom climbs up the side of the building as Jazzy continues on toward the pawn shop, sans one wall. A man in a yellow, quilted costume walks out with several bags in his hands. Jazzy stops a safe distance away, not wanting to get involved unless absolutely necessary. Spider-Man swings down and lands on a street lamp next to the Shocker.

“Hey Herman!” Spidey says cheerfully. “You know, pawn shops aren’t the best places to rob from, someone might try and rob you back.”

“Spider-Man,” Shocker growls. “This ain’t any of your business.”

“You blew a hole in the building,” Spider-Man says, gesturing toward the shop, “kinda my business.”

“What? You own this place, Spidey?”

“Huh? What? No, I don’t...do I?” Spider-Man’s head tilts and his mask’s eyes narrow. “Now you’re confusing me, Herman.” The Shocker drops his bags and aims his fists at Spider-Man. “Nope!” Spidey shoots webs from his wrists, wrapping Shockers fists together. He flips down over him. Shocker spins around, his fists lighting up with electricity as the webbing dissolves and his fist connects with Spider-Man’s stomach. Spidey flies backward, skidding to a halt next to Jazzy as he flips himself upright and sticks to the ground. He groans.

“You okay?” Jazzy asks.

“Yeah, fine,” he replies. “Go back and keep Harry safe, what are you doing?”

“Uh, wanted to ask if you want to do an interview with Eddie Brock,” Jazzy replies. “Told me I had to come and find you.”

Spidey snorts. “Sure, why not, just maybe not right now.”

Venom lands behind the Shocker, hulking figure throwing the thief into shadow. Jazzy looks over at Spider-Man and finds his body unnaturally still. Shocker slowly turns around and stumbles backward.

“What the fuck are you?!” he shouts.

**“We are Venom,”** Venom responds, toothy grin opening as his tongue spills out. **“And you look delicious.”**

“Wow, hey!” Spidey shouts, swinging toward them. “You can’t just come here and eat people!”

**“Spider-Man,”** Venom greets, inclining his head. **“Thought you might need a bit of help.”** Shocker steps aside, slowly moving away from in-between Spider-Man and Venom. Venom’s hand lashes out and grabs Shocker around his neck, lifting him up. Shocker squirms and grips at Venom’s arm. **“You are not going anywhere.”**

“And you aren’t going to eat him, I don’t need help,” Spidey states, arms gesticulating wildly. Venom looks over at him, mouth curling downward. Shocker curls his arm back, gauntlet lighting up, and he strikes at Venom, knocking the symbiote backward as Spider-Man flips out of the way. Jazzy watches as Venom separates from Eddie, the latter being blown into an alleyway. Jazzy rushes toward them as Spider-Man jumps and kicks the Shocker in the head, knocking him out. Spidey webs him up and hangs him from the lamppost as Jazzy runs past and toward Eddie.

“Eddie, hey, you okay?” she asks, crouching down next to him. She looks back and searches for Venom but can’t find him. Spider-Man runs toward them. Eddie groans.   
“Okay, you aren’t dead, that’s good.”

“Hey, what…” Spidey trails off, seeing Eddie. “Uh, that’s Eddie Brock.”

“Yup,” Jazzy replies. “Eddie, hey, get up.”

Eddie groans again. He rubs his lower back, then bolts upright. “Venom, where’s V, where is he?” He stumbles to his feet and Jazzy steadies him. “Where is he?!”

“Hey, calm down, I don’t know, okay, he went somewhere on the street,” Jazzy says. “Calm down or we won’t be able to find him.”

“No! I can’t calm down, I need him, I need…” Eddie stops talking and looks at Spider-Man with wild eyes.

“Uh, hi,” Spidey says. “You’re Venom, huh?”

“Technically,” Jazzy mutters, “Venom’s a symbiote and Eddie’s his host.”

“Did you see him?” Eddie asks.

“That big huge black creature with pointy teeth and a really long tongue? Yeah I saw him!”

“No, he means did you see a black blob of goo after Shocker hit him?” Jazzy clarifies.

“Uh, no,” Spidey responds. He stares at them before his mask’s eyes widen. “Oh shit.” He shoots a web and pulls himself to the roof. Eddie turns back to Jazzy.

“Okay, stay here, I’ll go search for him, alright?” Jazzy says. Eddie nods and she pats him on the shoulder. She jogs out of the alleyway and near the Shocker, searching the area for any sign of Venom. She looks up at Shocker. “Hey, you see a black goo blob?”

Shocker laughs. “Yeah, so what? You gonna get me out of here?”

“No, I won’t. Tell me where it is and I won’t kill you,” Jazzy says. “You’re lucky you just deal with Spider-Man.”

“You can’t kill me, you wouldn’t,” Shocker replies, cocky.

Jazzy raises her hand near his face before extending Anguish’s claws. “Oh yeah? Try me.”

She hears Shocker gulp. “Okay, okay, fine,” he says. “Black goo blob, whatever the hell it was, it stuck to Spider-Man and disappeared. Now put those claws away, will ya?”

“Fine, only because you’ve been helpful.” Anguish’s claws disappear and Jazzy heads back to Eddie. “Well, I know where he is.”

“He’s okay?”

“Yeah, I guess, I mean, I think he just panicked and bonded to, uh, Spidey,” Jazzy says.

“Okay, then I’ll go talk to him, get Venom back,” Eddie says, voice not as strained and high. “Where is he?”

“I…” Jazzy bites her lip. “Look, I’m not sure, but he said he’s down for an interview.”

**‘You’re lying again,’** Anguish states.

Jazzy shakes her head. “I gotta go finish my pizza though, you can come with.”

“No, I...I can’t, I just, I’m going back to the hotel.” Eddie rubs his arms and shivers. His face looks pale and clammy.

“Okay, don’t push yourself,” Jazzy says. They exit the alley and police cars arrive and Jazzy heads back to the pizza place. She enters the building and finds the owner making pizzas and Harry and Peter sitting in their booth as though nothing happened. She sits in the booth, Link immediately climbing onto her lap and licking her hand. Peter turns toward her.

“What the hell?” Peter asks her as she continues to eat her pizza. “What was that?”

“Eddie?” Jazzy asks around a mouthful.

“Yeah, he’s Venom?”

“Oh, you found out about that?” Harry asks. “What happened?”

“Shocker, pawn shop, Venom, he hit Venom, Eddie Brock, I don’t understand, why aren’t you freaking out?” Peter explains rather vaguely while waving his arm around.

“Because we’ve both known for a while,” Jazzy says. “Peter you--”

“You willingly work with a murderer,” Peter hisses.

**‘Someone has some nasty assumptions.’** Anguish’s anger bleeds into Jazzy’s own. **‘Maybe we should put him in his place.’**

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Peter,” Jazzy growls, brows drawn. “Venom only hurts bad people, just like you and me, just like the fucking Avengers, so you shut your mouth.”

“Wow, Jazzy, calm down,” Harry says. “Peter’s not wrong, Eddie is technically a murderer.”

“Yeah, so am I,” Jazzy mutters through clenched teeth.

“What? You have a symbiote too?” Peter says. Jazzy can tell that he’s joking.

“Oh yeah, and she’s not very happy with you right now,” Jazzy replies. “I’m not the only one here that has a symbiote.”

“I know Harry doesn’t have one,” Peter says.

“Never said he did, I’m talking about you, Parker.”

“Jazzy, that’s crazy,” Harry says. “Peter doesn’t have a symbiote, he can’t have one. There’s only three on Earth.”

“Not crazy,” Jazzy responds. “Shocker blasted Venom and Eddie apart and Venom bonded with our one and only Spider-Man.”

Peter laughs. “Oh yeah, because I wouldn’t notice something like that happening.” He rolls his eyes and leans back in the booth. “No fucking way.”

“I’m serious, and you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, just let Eddie see you and then he can get Venom back and it will all be fine,” Jazzy says.

“What, are you gonna tell me symbiotes are dangerous next? Because I already know that, and I would know if I had one inside of me.”

**‘Not true, if my parent is weak and recovering, as well as silent because he usually isn’t, then he would not be able to detect his presence,’** Anguish informs. **‘He could only tell if Venom was missing if they had been bonded for a long period of time, like Eddie.’** Jazzy relays the first part of the information to Peter. He frowns.

“Yeah, but,” Harry says, “did you see Venom bond with him?”

“No, but Shocker did,” Jazzy replies honestly.

“You can’t believe him,” Peter states. “You don’t even know for sure.” Peter picks up his last slice of pepperoni pizza and stands up. “I’m gonna go do homework.” He looks at Harry. “Thanks for paying, Har, and, um, I’ll see you later?” he asks with a crooked smile.

“Yeah, of course, Pete,” Harry breathes. Peter nods and walks out of the restaurant, waving at the owner. Harry turns to Jazzy. “Wow, geez, what was that all about?”

“What?” Jazzy asks rather defensively.

“You guys fighting.”

“I wasn’t going to just let him bash on symbiotes when I am bonded to one, Harry,” Jazzy snaps. “And I’m serious about him being bonded with Ven.”

**‘What Mysterio told us still holds true,’** Anguish mutters. **‘He’s supposed to be nice? Doesn’t seem like it.’**

“I know, Guish,” Jazzy mutters. _I still believe Harry over him though. Harry likes him and it can’t be for no reason._

**‘I know that.’**

Harry’s phone buzzes. He looks down. “Wanna go back to my dorm? Flash got out of practice.”

Jazzy smiles. “Yeah. Flash. Let’s do that.” She stands up, taking Link’s leash and follows Harry out the door and back to ESU. They walk in comfortable silence, past the blown wall surrounded by police tape, and back to the campus. Harry takes Jazzy to his dorm, careful to keep Link hidden. Jazzy unclips Link’s leash and lets him run about the room. Midna jumps down from Harry’s bed and pounces playfully at the puppy. Harry collapses onto his bed with a sigh.

“He’ll be out of the shower in a bit,” Harry tells her, knowing her unspoken question. “You can come sit on here if you want.”

“Cool, thanks Harry,” Jazzy says, moving his pillow and sitting there. She kicks her shoes off and pulls her legs up beside her. “Flash and Peter still hate each other?”

“Yeah, not as much now though, kinda don’t let them argue around me, so they can get along,” Harry tells her, eyes closed. He sighs before doubling over, wracked with coughs.

“You okay?” Jazzy asks, back straightening.

“Fine,” he says around coughs. “Just a little sick. A cold, yanno?”

The door opens and Link barks. Jazzy hushes him before looking to the doorway to find Flash looking rather shocked. Link bounds up to him, tail wagging. “What?” Flash mutters. “Link?” The pup barks again.

“Link!” Jazzy exclaims. “Hush!”

Flash looks over at her, eyes widening even more. “Jazzy? What are you doing here?”

“I was in town,” Jazzy replies with a smirk, warmth filling her core and flushing her cheeks.

Flash’s lips twitch upward and he steps over Link and Midna. “You couldn’t have said anything?”

“Wanted to surprise y’all.” Jazzy shifts herself onto her knees and wraps her arms around Flash. “Good to see you Flash man.”

“Yeah, yeah, totally,” Flash says, squeezing Jazzy against his chest. “Damn it’s good to see you. Where you staying? You can stay here if you want.”

Jazzy laughs. “I’m staying at a hotel with Eddie,” Jazzy replies. “We’re here for work reasons.”

“Yeah, okay, but you could stay here one night, right?” Flash says, pulling back and holding Jazzy’s shoulders. “I’m sure Eddie wouldn’t mind.”

“I feel like you should be more worried about me minding,” Harry chimes in. “I mean, I don’t mind, but just saying.”

“Yeah, right, totally, sorry Harry,” Flash responds, eyes not moving from Jazzy. “You look good, I like the bangs.” His finger brushes against them.

“Thanks,” Jazzy says. They stare at each other, Flash’s tongue flicking out to swipe at his lips. Jazzy feels her chest heaving as he glances between her eyes and mouth.

**‘What are you doing?’**

“What are you doing?” Harry says, almost like an echo of Anguish. Flash’s eyes dart down to Jazzy’s lips one more time before he turns to Harry.

He grins his cocky smile and turns back to the door and grabs his dirty clothes off the floor, throwing them into his hamper. “Not doing nothing, Harry.”

Jazzy sits back down, lightly jostling Harry. Her eyes trail Flash’s movements, glancing down whenever he looks at her.

**‘You should ask him out,’** Anguish suggests. Jazzy shakes her head. **‘I’m serious, or at least make out with him a little like we did.’**

“Anguish, I swear to the gods,” Jazzy mutters as she absently stares at Flash’s ass. “I do not need to do that.”

**‘Feels like you do, looks like he wants to, too.’**

“He probably doesn’t, stop it.”

**‘He almost kissed you just now.’**

“No,” Jazzy says, eyes moving to Harry’s desk and focusing on the photo of Emily Osborn. “He didn’t, I’m just imagining things, you’re just imagining things, gods Anguish just, we aren’t, it isn’t…” Jazzy groans and leans her head back. “What am I even saying?”

“I don’t know, Jazz, what are you saying?” Harry asks. Jazzy looks down at him and sees a teasing smirk. His eyes close again. “I think you need to take a nap.”

“Yeah, probably,” Jazzy replies.

Flash jumps onto his bed. “Seriously, Jazz, ask Eddie if he’s alright with you staying over one night.”

“Yeah, I will, though I don’t know if tonight would be the best,” Jazzy responds. “Venom, uh, well him and Eddie were separated and I think the silence might mess with Eddie too much.”

“Wait, how’d they get separated?”

“Shocker,” Jazzy replies. She looks down at Harry and hears him snoring softly. “Did he just fall asleep?”

“He does that a lot,” Flash says. “But Shocker? Where’s Ven?”

“He uh, bonded with, um, Spider-Man, apparently,” Jazzy mumbles. “We’re figuring it out.”

“Spidey?”

“Yeah, it was a weird lunch,” Jazzy says. She leans back and they stare at each other.

“Come over here,” Flash says, gesturing beside him. Jazzy smiles and tilts her head. “You’re so far away.” Jazzy stands up and sits beside him, nestling into his side. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jazzy laughs. She watches Link roll onto his back and paw at Midna. “How’s school been?”

“Other than the gen-eds, pretty great. Focusing on football, yanno?”

“Oh yeah, totally,” Jazzy says. “Gen-eds aren’t that fun.”

“Hey, uh,” Flash clears his throat, “you still not ready for another relationship?”

Jazzy looks up at Flash. “I...why do you ask?”

**‘Isn’t it obvious, Jazzy?’**

“Just curious,” Flash says with a shrug.

Jazzy searches his face. “I don’t think I am. Are you...are you asking me out on a date?”

Flash tilts his head and bobs it in a vague answer. “Okay, just wondering. Good to know though.”

Jazzy draws her brows together and leans back from Flash. “Do you like me?” she asks, staring at his profile. Flash doesn’t look at her or answer. “Flash? Seriously, do you?”

“If I do?” he says, looking at her from the side and sounding defensive. Jazzy opens her mouth but nothing comes out. “I wanted to ask you out when we first met, but Harry had told me before that I shouldn’t.”

“Eugene,” Jazzy mutters, heart aching.

“Yeah, fine, geez,” Flash snaps, looking away from her. “I like you, a lot, okay? Big deal.” His arm falls away from Jazzy’s shoulders as he crosses his arms.

Jazzy wrings her hands in her lap and bites her lip. **‘You like him too, tell him,’** Anguish says. **‘You have no reason not to.’**

_I’m not...are you okay with this?_ Jazzy projects to her symbiote.

**‘If you’re happy, then I am. Yes I am okay with you going out with Flash.’**

“Just, yeah maybe it’ll be better if you just go back to your hotel,” Flash grumbles. “Whatever.”

Jazzy closes her eyes and takes a breath. “Flash, Eugene, I don’t…” she bites her lip, “I don’t know if I’m ready to date anyone again, but all you have to do is ask me and I’ll say yes.”

Flash turns to look at her. “What?”

“I’m willing to try again with you,” Jazzy states. “So, I’ll ask again, are you asking me out on a date?”

There’s a long pause. “Yeah, I am.”

“Okay,” Jazzy replies with a smile. “Let’s do it then.”

“Yeah? You sure?”

Jazzy nods. “But if I’m not ready, then no more dates for a while, okay?”

“Yeah, no problem, don’t want to push anything,” Flash replies. “Oh, uh, what about you Anguish, you alright with this?”

Jazzy looks up in surprise. Anguish stretches out from her shoulder. **“Yes I am.”**

“Okay, cool, just making sure.” Flash musses his wet hair. “So, date, uh, want to get dinner tonight? Maybe a movie after?”

**“Of course we want dinner.”**

“Guish please,” Jazzy sighs, smiling. “Yeah sounds good, Flash.”

“Cool, um, just text me when you’re hungry and we’ll get something to eat. I’ll pick you up at the hotel too.”

Jazzy’s phone vibrates and she looks down at the illuminated screen to find a message from Eddie. **I have a plan** Jazzy blinks before realizing he’s probably referring to getting Venom back.

“Apparently Eddie has a plan,” Jazzy informs Flash. “I should get back to the hotel. I’ll text you shit later, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Flash says, flashing her a grin.

Jazzy smiles back and hops down from the bed, calling Link over to her and reattaching his leash. She pats Harry’s leg as she leaves the dorm and heads back to her hotel room.


	19. Chapter 19

“So, what’s your plan, Eddie?” Jazzy asks as the hotel room door slams shut behind her. She finds Eddie sitting on the edge of his bed and staring forlornly out the window. “Eddie?”

“You, Anguish, cause some chaos, Spider-Man shows up, and I talk to him and get Venom back,” Eddie says, not looking behind him. Jazzy blinks. “It should work, it better work.”

Jazzy sits down next to him. “You want us to fuck shit up?” Jazzy asks. Eddie nods. “Okay, that does sound like a pretty solid plan, but you know what could happen if I get him angry and he loses control. Plus, I don’t know if I could do that tonight, I have a date.”

“A date?” Eddie asks, finally turning to look at her. “With who?”

“Flash,” Jazzy replies. “Look, I get it, you’re losing your mind and everything is too quiet, yeah?”

“It’s not just that, there’s an emptiness, like a hole where he’s supposed to be,” Eddie explains, rubbing his solar plexus. “And the last time I felt this I thought he died.” He turns back to the window. “Please, Jazzy, it won’t take that long.”

“There’s no guarantee he’ll come after me.”

**‘If we kill someone with a news camera on us, he will.’**

“Anguish, that’s a little overkill.”

**‘Is that a pun?’**

Jazzy purses her lips. “It might be.”

Eddie looks over to her again, body shaking. “I need you to get him back, that’s all I need, I can’t do this without him.”

“Is this an addiction?”

“No, I have to make sure he’s safe, I also know that Spider-Man doesn’t know what he got himself into and I’m fairly certain he doesn’t want to bite anyone’s head off,” Eddie replies, sounding more and more frantic.

**‘Come on, Jazzy, it won’t take long.’**

_Yeah, but Peter’s doing homework._

**‘Fuck his homework.’**

Jazzy rolls her eyes. “Okay, I’ll go draw him out. Watch Link.” She stands up with a sigh and leaves the hotel room again. Anguish shifts impatiently under her skin as Jazzy searches for an empty and hidden place. Once she does, Anguish wastes no time enveloping Jazzy in her flesh and jumping onto the nearest skyscraper, bounding her way to the top.

**“How do we get him out?”**

‘Could go to the Bugle, since he works there.’

**“Good idea.”** Anguish scans the city before finding a bright red sign announcing the location of the Daily Bugle. Anguish leaps in that direction as Jazzy looks below them at the very different city.

‘It’s nice here.’

**“Yes,”** Anguish replies. She hooks her claws into the side of the brick building, peering through the large glass window. They spot J. Jonah Jameson in his office yelling at someone who looks completely unfazed. Anguish tilts her head and slams her fist into the glass, shattering it completely. Jameson whips around and the big African-American man he was yelling at looks over and takes a step backward, still unfazed.

“What the hell is this thing?!” Jameson shouts, gesturing toward Anguish.

The symbiote steps through and looms over Jameson, arms loosely poised around him. **“Where’s Spider-Man?”**

“The menace?! What, you working with him?”

**“No, we need him.”** Jazzy watches the other guy quietly leave the office along with the other employees staring into the office. **“He took what isn’t his.”**

“I knew he’s a thief!” Jameson exclaims. He grabs the phone on his desk. “Parker! Get over here right now! We have some kind of monster looking for that menace, Spider-Man!” Anguish frowns. “That’s what I said!” Jameson slams his phone down.

**“You seem pretty relaxed all things considered,”** Anguish notes.

“That Spider-Menace attracts all sorts of weirdos like you here, this ain’t the first time I’ve had some no-gooder break into my office!”

Anguish whips around, facing Spider-Man perched on the windowsill. Jazzy has to do a double take. **“Spider-Man, new suit?”**

Spidey tilts his head and narrows his eyes. Anguish narrows her own as they take in each others’ appearances. Spider-Man’s suit is no longer red and blue, but black with a white spider scrawled across his chest. It looks very much like Venom. “Do you like it?” Spidey asks. “Saw the broken window, thought I’d come check it out and see who Jameson pissed off today.”

“Spider-Man,” Jameson growls. “Get out of my office!”

**“No, we need to talk to him,”** Anguish says, stepping closer to Spidey.

“Just talk? That’s new,” Spider-Man says.

**“You have someone,”** Anguish says. **“Come with us, and we’ll get him away from you.”**

“Don’t want that,” Spidey replies. “This suit? Damn I feel good.”

**“You don’t know what you’re doing.”**

“Really? You sure about that?”

Anguish notices a pale, suckered octopus arm emerge from around the window, the tip flaring out and reaching toward Spider-Man. Spidey leaps backward off the windowsill and over the arm, easily shooting a web and attaching him to the wall and out of sight from Anguish.

“Hey Doc Ock, can’t you see I’m having a conversation here?” Spider-Man shouts. Anguish leisurely makes her way to the window, peering out and finding Spider-Man face to face with a dark haired man whose skin shifts against the wall, turning the same color and texture as the brick. He has four suckered arms protruding from his back, two keeping him attached to the wall, the others waving around like they have a mind of their own. His eyes, hidden by reflective goggles, turn toward the symbiote.

“And what might you be?” he directs toward Anguish.

**“We are Anguish and we were here first.”** Anguish lunges toward the many-armed man, dodging his arms and slamming him against the wall. **“You aren’t welcome here right now.”**

“Yeah Ock, it’s really disrespectful interrupting conversations,” Spidey adds, a web blossoming across Ock’s goggles. One of his arms grabs Anguish’s shoulder and pulls her away, flinging her across the street. The symbiote slams into the building opposite the Bugle, pain shuddering through Jazzy.

‘You know I have a spider sense for a reason right?’ Jazzy groans.

**“Sorry.”**

Jazzy and Anguish return their attentions to Spider-Man and Doc Ock, the latter stomping after the other across the building leaving craters in the bricks. Jazzy can make out Peter’s quips as he flips and crawls along the wall, dodging Ock’s limbs and continuously shooting webs at his assailant. Spidey punches Ock across the face, blood splattering from his mouth, clearly visible to Jazzy.

**“He’s being reckless.”**

‘Gonna get someone killed,’ Jazzy agrees. ‘At least he’s still in control.’

**“Not for long.”**

Doc Ock stumbles backward as Spider-Man pushes off of his chest, black suit--Venom--rippling upward. Anguish angles herself and pushes off from the wall, soaring over to the Bugle and landing in-between the fighters. Jazzy takes note of Ock’s fatigued expression and labored breathing, blood trailing down his chin. His arms lash out at Anguish. The symbiote cartwheels over them, hair snagging against a sucker. Anguish grunts.

The arms continue on toward Spider-Man, who grabs both of them and pulls backward, dragging Ock closer to him before the arms rip off, blue blood squirting everywhere as Ock screams in agony, collapsing to the bricks and shaking. Spider-Man tosses the severed arms down to the street before straightening up. The arm stubs wave weakly against Ock’s back. Spidey steps toward him, but Anguish throws a tendril out to stop him.

“What the hell are you doing?” Spider-Man snaps at her.

**“Stopping you from doing something you’ll regret.”**

“You don’t _know_ me,” he growls. “You don’t know what I’ll regret.”

Anguish lowers herself into a fighting stance. She growls and Spidey lunges toward her. Anguish dodges his fist, but he catches her in a side kick and knocks the symbiote off balance. Jazzy watches as Doc Ock slumps away, rounding the corner of the building and disappearing. She doesn’t have time to focus on his disappearance as Spider-Man comes at Anguish again.

‘Try not to hurt him,’ Jazzy tells her symbiote. Anguish grabs Spidey’s incoming fist and twists his wrist back. Spider-Man hisses as he swipes his leg underneath Anguish, knocking her off her feet. He webs her arms and legs down to the brick wall. He pops his wrist.

“I don’t care if this suit is Venom,” he says, leaning over her. “I can save more people, quicker, better, and I’m in control, Jazzy.”

**“You won’t stay in control.”**

“You don’t know that.”

**“Yes we do. My parent is powerful and cannot be shoved down. It isn’t in his nature, it isn’t in ours,”** Anguish warns. **“And you have too much anger. Just let him go back to Eddie.”**

Spidey scoffs. “Like I said, you don’t know me. I don’t have too much anger, and I will stay in control. It makes me stronger and I haven’t felt this good in years.” He stands up and turns away, twipping out a web and swinging down the road. The webs encasing Anguish’s wrists and ankles is absorbed into her body and she stands up, shaking her head. She heads back to the hotel room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow i love jjj


	20. Chapter 20

“Hey Jazzy,” Flash greets as Jazzy walks toward him in the hotel lobby. Jazzy smiles at him as he lounges against the wall, hands tucked in the pockets of his letterman jacket. “You ready to get some dinner?”

“Hey,” Jazzy greets back. “And yeah, I’m always ready for dinner.”

Flash kicks himself off the wall. “Alright then let’s go, though I’m not taking you to the fanciest place.”

“Totally fine,” Jazzy laughs. “Anywhere’s fine as long as you’re there.”

Flash grins and throws his arm over Jazzy’s shoulders, steering her toward the front door. “Well I hope you like steak, ‘cause we’re going to a steakhouse.” Anguish hums in approval.

“Steak is a damn good choice, Thompson.”

“Glad you approve.” They exit the hotel and walk down the street, Anguish pointing out different people and how delicious they look. Jazzy wrings her hands nervously, occasionally looking up at Flash’s relaxed profile. The street lights flicker on as they continue down the sidewalk. “We’re here,” Flash announces as he opens a door to a dimly lit restaurant filled with the sounds of chatter and sizzling steaks. After a few words are exchanged with the host, the two are led to a back booth with menus laid out in front of them.

“So, what do you suggest?” Jazzy asks, tilting the menu upward. “You seem like you know your steaks.”

Flash chuckles. “I might,” he agrees. “Well, you eat a lot, so the bigger steak the better right? I’d go with the ribeye or New York strip.”

“That does sound good.” Jazzy peruses the menu, stomach feeling tight with nerves. “With mashed potatoes.”

**‘I haven’t had mashed potatoes.’**

“They’re good, Guish. Plus, potatoes.”

**‘You’re right.’**

“What is with Guish and Ven and potatoes?” Flash asks.

“Potatoes have, uh, a chemical that symbiotes need to live apparently, according to Eddie, so does chocolate and dairy,” Jazzy explains. “And brains.”

“God, that makes so much more sense.”

A waitress appears beside their table, greeting them before asking what they would like to drink. Jazzy orders some water, Flash gets some Cola. Jazzy also orders potato   
skins for an appetizer, much to Flash’s amusement. The waitress nods and leaves.

“Potato skins must be the shit for symbiotes,” Flash states. Jazzy nods. He grins. “They’re the shit in general.”

“Gods, I know right?” Jazzy responds. “I think I’ll have the ribeye. I’ll pay too, since I’m eating most of the food anyway.”

“Jazzy, you don’t have to do that,” Flash says.

“I know, but I’ll do it anyway,” Jazzy replies. She lowers her voice, “I don’t want you going broke feeding the insatiable hunger of a symbiote and superhuman.”

“That’s a fair point.”

The waitress quickly comes back with a plate of cheesy potato skins with bacon bits and their respective drinks.

“Do you know what you’d like to order?” she asks them.

Jazzy and Flash exchange looks and silently confirm. “Seventeen ounce ribeye with mashed potatoes,” Jazzy tells her. “And green beans.”

“I’ll have the New York strip with fries,” Flash follows up.

“Will that be all?”

“Yeah, thank you,” Flash says. The waitress nods and leaves. “So, how was your day?”

Jazzy smiles and looks down at their appetizer, grabbing one of the skins. “It was pretty good, tiring though, I don’t like airports but I got to see you and Harry.”

“Yeah, seeing us is always great. Saw that you also fought Spidey.”

“Okay, look, technically Anguish was doing the fighting,” Jazzy defends, “and he attacked us first. We were just stopping him from killing Doc Ock.”

“Spidey doesn’t kill people, he’s not like you or Eddie,” Flash says. “And Doctor Octopus might deserve that.”

“He might not kill people, but Venom sure does.” Jazzy frowns as she bites into her potato. She covers her mouth as she chews. “But beside the point, how was your day?”

“One of the best days I’ve had in awhile,” Flash responds. “Saying the girl I really like agreed to go on a date with me.” Jazzy feels her face flush. “But other than that it was pretty average. Classes, football practice.”

They continue chatting about nothing in particular, Jazzy stumbling over her words as her stomach continues to tie itself into knots. Their steaks come out and Anguish has to force Jazzy to eat. Flash mindlessly picks at his food as they continue talking, his cocky grin firmly in place.

**‘We need to eat, Jazzy,’** Anguish groans, forcing the fork to her mouth. **‘You know that.’**

_Not so fast, Guish, I feel like I’m going to puke,_ Jazzy mentally replies.

**‘Why are you so anxious? You know him, he likes you back.’**

“Because I haven’t been on a date in a while,” Jazzy hisses under her breath.

“Shit, am I making you uncomfortable?” Flash asks.

Jazzy shakes her head. “No, no, Anguish just asked me something is all,” Jazzy mumbles. “This is...this is great, really, I’m just not used to, yanno, this with someone else.”

“Hey, wanna go for a walk after we eat?” Flash asks after a beat of silence. “I know a great place near here.”

“As long as it’s not a park, yeah.”

“Cool, cool, it’s not a park don’t worry,” Flash says. Jazzy can see his curiosity and is grateful that he doesn’t ask his question.

They finish eating their dinners, Jazzy much quicker than Flash only due to Anguish, though she allows him to have the last potato skin. Jazzy pays and they head out of the restaurant, Flash leading Jazzy down the sidewalk and into a residential area. She can’t help but look up at Flash and his face silhouetted by the dim street lights as they walk toward a depressed grassy area lined with trees swaying in the breeze and lit up by the bright light of the moon. There’s a fence blocking the path leading down.

“You don’t mind jumping it, right?” Flash asks, looking back at Jazzy.

“I don’t mind,” Jazzy whispers.

Flash winks at her before climbing over the chain-link fence with ease. Jazzy follows him, leaping over it like a hurdle. Flash whistles low. “Damn, you’re good.”

“Easy-peasy when you got spider powers,” she replies with a grin. “So, what’s the plan, Flash?”

“I thought we’d do some stargazing,” he replies with a shrug, turning toward the grassy area. “You get a great view out here.”

He takes Jazzy down and they find a level area covered with soft grass before lying down, arms stretching upward to pillow his head. Jazzy smiles and lays down next to him, several centimeters separating them. They stare up at the sky, watching as more stars continue to appear and a satellite skims past. Jazzy points out a couple of constellations to Flash.

Flash shifts, lifting himself up onto his elbows with his chin still tilted to the stars. He turns his head and looks down at Jazzy, smiling brightly. Jazzy meets his eyes. “Can I kiss you?”

Jazzy feels her heart stop then start again in double time. Her mouth parts and a wisp of air escapes into the night.

**‘Well isn’t this romantic?’** Anguish comments.

“Jazzy?”

“Yeah, sure,” she breathes out, ignoring her symbiote’s remark.

Flash leans down as Jazzy lifts herself up. His lips find hers in the dark and Jazzy sighs into the kiss, eyelids fluttering against her cheeks. Flash’s hand comes up to cup her jaw. His lips are soft and Jazzy feels a bit of stubble tickle at her upper lip. He pulls away and Jazzy unconsciously follows him before her eyes open again. Flash smiles down at her with a toothy grin.

“You taste sweet,” Flash states.

“Not like steak?” Jazzy replies, not fully aware of her mouth moving.

Flash laughs. “Okay, you taste a little like steak.”

Jazzy tilts her head, hair falling over her shoulder. “You’re a good kisser.”

“You too,” he replies with a wink. Flash turns back to the stars, laying back down.

Jazzy looks over at him and his hand resting in the space between them. She itches to reach out and take it in her own, but she can’t bring herself to do it. Instead she keeps her hand shoved in her jacket pocket and the other under her head with her fingers buried in her hair.

**‘You have it bad, Jazzy.’**

_Are you sure you’re okay with this, Guish?_ Jazzy wonders, surprised that she’s able to take her mind off of Flash and his lips.

**‘Yes, I’m sure,’** Anguish replies. **‘I like Flash, just not as much as you.’**

“You got me there, Guishy,” Jazzy says, lips twitching. Flash chuckles beside her.

They spend another few minutes side by side looking at the stars before Flash helps Jazzy up and walks her back to the hotel. They stay relatively quiet on their walk, but it’s comfortable and helps settle Jazzy’s still twisting stomach.

“So, uh, tonight was fun, wanna do it again sometime?” Flash says once they reach the hotel entrance.

“Yeah,” Jazzy answers. “That sounds good.”

They linger outside the door for a moment. “Can I kiss you again?” Jazzy smiles and nods. Flash leans down as Jazzy stretches onto her toes. Jazzy can’t help but continue to smile into the kiss. They stare at each other after they part, Jazzy slowly lowering herself down.

“Goodnight Flash,” Jazzy mutters.

“Goodnight,” he responds. His hand strokes through her hair before falling down to his side.

“Be careful, okay?”

“Yeah, I will be.”

Jazzy takes a tentative step backward, not quite wanting the night to be over. Flash slowly turns away and starts walking back to his dorm as Jazzy opens the door to the hotel lobby. She looks back at him one last time before heading up to her shared room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> based on an actual date i went on


	21. Chapter 21

Jazzy watches as Eddie’s leg shakes up and down in the elevator quickly moving up to where they are meant to meet Tony Stark. She left Link with Harry and Flash with a few kisses from the latter. Now she and Eddie are in Stark Tower and Eddie’s mind is clearly focused elsewhere.

“We’ll figure out a way to get Venom back to you,” Jazzy tells him, voice lowered.

Eddie startles and looks at her. “What if he doesn’t want to come back to me?”

Jazzy blinks slowly. “Is that what you’re worried about?” Eddie looks back to the elevator door and gives an aborted nod. “Eddie, he loves you.”

“I know that, rationally, but emotionally I’m having a rough time figuring out why he hasn’t already come back. He can control Spider-Man if he has to, you know that.”

“Shocker weakened him, it probably just has to do with that.” The elevator stops and the doors ding open. “C’mon Eddie, you gotta focus on this right now.”

“I know, I know, just,” Eddie sighs, “I hope you don’t have to deal with anything like this.”

They step out of the elevator and onto a sleek, well-lived in looking floor with a huge flatscreen TV and several couches. Jazzy looks around and finds a full liquor bar tucked away in the corner by a glass staircase. Jazzy has to do a double take when she sees Harley sitting on one of the couches with what looks like a gaming system in his hands.

“Uh, Harley? Why are you here?” Jazzy asks.

“I live here when I’m not on campus,” he replies, not bothering to look up. “What are you doing here?”

“Interviewing Tony Stark,” she replies, “with Eddie.”

Harley glances up at them briefly. “Jarvis, tell Tony that he’s late for his meeting again.”

“Right away, sir,” a rather gentlemanly voice replies, emanating from the ceiling. Jazzy assumes it’s the AI running the entire building.

_His voice is nicer than KARI’s._

“You guys can, like, sit down or whatever,” Harley states.

Jazzy nods and sits on the opposite side of the couch from Harley while Eddie takes a seat in one of the few armchairs. Jazzy leans back and stares at the ceiling, twiddling her thumbs as she waits for Tony Stark to make his way to them. She listens to Harley aggressively tapping on his controller, every once in awhile swearing at the game.

**‘What do you think Tony Stark is like?’** Anguish asks her. Jazzy hums in thought.

“Funny, I bet,” Jazzy mutters. Harley doesn’t make any indication that he heard her. “Probably like he is on the news, more or less. Not like I’d see anything else since this is for the news.”

**‘So, not like Norman.’**

“Definitely not.”

**‘That’s good, I won’t have to eat him.’**

“Yeah, he’s an Avenger, don’t eat Avengers,” Jazzy says with an eye roll.

**‘Blind trust.’** Jazzy opens her mouth to respond but she hears the elevator open and Anguish turns her attention toward the sound. Tony Stark walks in wearing a beautiful three piece suit and a pair of his famous sunglasses. Eddie stands up and walks over to meet him.

“Stark,” Eddie states, holding his hand out.

Tony grasps it and gives a firm shake. “Brock,” he replies. He nods at Jazzy. “That your intern?”

“Yeah,” Eddie confirms. He gestures for Jazzy to come over.

Jazzy stands up and makes her way toward them. She holds her own hand out. “Jazzy Joyce, nice to meet you Mister Stark.”

“Please, just call me Tony,” he says, giving her hand a shake. “So, we’ll just sit on the couches, get comfortable, maybe the kid should leave.” They collectively turn toward Harley. He flips Tony the middle finger without looking up from his game. “Or not. Either of you want a drink? I’m getting one,” Tony states, walking over to the bar.

“No, thank you,” Eddie responds.

“Jazzy?” Tony wonders.

Jazzy shakes her head. “Alcohol intolerant.” Her and Eddie head back to the couches, this time sitting on the same one as Harley. Jazzy nudges Harley’s foot before sitting down and he responds by kicking her arm. “Wow, thanks Harley,” Jazzy snarks.

“Yeah, no problem, I’ll do that again if you want,” he replies. Jazzy rolls her eyes.

Tony comes over and sits down on the armchair that Eddie was in before, glass of scotch in his hand, ice clinking merrily. “I’m ready to start whenever you two are.” Eddie clicks a button on his camera set up on a tricorder. Jazzy furrows her brows, unsure when Eddie set the camera up.

“Alright.” Eddie leans back and pulls out his notebook. “Eddie Brock here with Jazzy Joyce, today we’re interviewing Iron Man himself, Tony Stark.” Tony gives a lazy wave at the camera as he crosses his legs. “Tell us, Tony, is there any truth behind the rumors regarding Stark Industries space stations? If so, what would their purpose be?”

“Of course I’m making space stations,” Tony replies. “Stark Industries already has starships, launching space stations would allow for better efficiency, more secure travel, that sort of thing. Also, the Avengers have been talking about opening up Earth embassies, which personally I think should have been done years ago.”

Jazzy feels Anguish rooting through her memories about starships and the Avengers. Flashes of her memories cross over her eyes--Leviathan aliens crashing into skyscrapers on the news, Iron Man and Thor flying side by side, the Captain America museum exhibit, and other memories like them. Jazzy tilts her head and relaxes her mind, allowing her symbiote easier access to the memories.

“Would one of the Avengers become an ambassador?” Eddie continues.

“Most likely,” Tony says with a shrug before sipping from his glass. “That’s something we have to figure out with other governments, which I’m not looking forward too. I’m sure Cap will take care of that.”

Harley curses again and Jazzy looks over to him. “What’s Harley doing here?”

“I told you,” Harley replies. Jazzy raises an eyebrow and looks to Tony.

“Harley is my personal intern, also my adopted son,” Tony says. “Actually, we never did a DNA test so for all I know he could be my actual son.” Harley chuckles but doesn’t add anything. “How do you know Harley?”

“I’m being asked the questions now? Oh the turned tables,” Jazzy laughs. “I met him yesterday, we have mutual friends.”

“Yeah, one of Peter’s friends,” Harley adds.

“Oh, that makes sense, I guess,” Tony says. “Peter is another of my adopted sons. He doesn’t really talk about it as much as Harley does though.”

“Why did you adopt them?” Jazzy asks. Eddie side-eyes her. “I know I’m getting off-topic,” she mutters to her mentor.

“They’re both orphans, got to know them very well as my personal interns. Honestly it just kind of happened.”

“It’s because we’re connected,” Harley sasses.

“That too.”

“How often do you take personal interns?” Eddie asks, attempting to drive the interview back on course.

“Not often. Generally I have to know them first,” Tony replies. “I have to know I’ll be able to trust them because Harley and Peter both got to see classified information, and as far as I know, they haven’t shared it with anyone. They better keep it that way. However, Stark Industries internships are available at the moment, so if any of your viewers would like to apply, now would be the time.” Tony looks directly into the camera. “And trust me, we’re a lot more fun than Oscorp.”

The interview continues for quite some time, Tony getting up to refill his glass a couple of times. Eddie asks most of the questions. Harley chimes in every once in awhile, putting his game away halfway through. He stretches his legs out onto Jazzy’s lap. Anguish starts complaining about her hunger near the end as Eddie begins asking Tony about his rivalry with Norman Osborn. Tony tells several stories that paint Norman in a rather unflattering light, but Jazzy believes them all based on her own experiences with the CEO of Oscorp.

“Thank you for your time,” Eddie says, ending the interview. Jazzy reaches over and ends the recording.


	22. Chapter 22

Jazzy spots Spider-Man swinging overhead as she makes her way toward the ESU campus to meet up with Harry and Flash. She quickly ducks into an alleyway and allows Anguish to form her suit, following after Spidey. Jazzy shouts at him, causing him to turn in midair before gracefully landing on a nearby roof.

“Go away Jazzy,” he says when she lands in front of him. “I don’t want to hear about you and Venom and Eddie anymore, got it?”

“Okay, fine,” Jazzy snaps back. “But I have one question. Have you been lashing out at people more?”

“So what?”

“I think you know what.”

**‘You didn’t lash out that much after you bonded with me,’** Anguish states.

“True,” Jazzy replies to her symbiote. “But I’m really good at bottling up my anger and focusing it elsewhere. Years of practice.”

Peter huffs out a laugh. “Look, even if I have been lashing out at people, that doesn’t mean anything. Maybe I’ve just had enough with everyone’s bullshit.”

Jazzy sighs and rolls her eyes, opening her mouth to respond. Her spidey sense goes off and she immediately crouches down into her fighting stance, swivelling toward the street. From her peripherals she sees Spider-Man do the same. A well dressed man with an intricately carved jackal mask reminiscent of Anubis lands on the roof in front of them. His head tilts toward Jazzy then to Peter before he looks back at Jazzy.

“Uh,” Spidey voices, “this one of your guys?”

“Not that I know of,” Dancing Spider replies, not taking her eyes off the new villain. “Who are you?”

“You can call me Jackal,” he replies, voice smooth and relaxed.

“You really missed the opportunity to call yourself Anubis, just saying man,” Jazzy states.

Jackal sighs. “I don’t call myself Anubis because it isn’t my goal to kill,” he explains. “I’m here on Mother’s request.”

Jazzy’s spider sense tingles. Spidey squints. “Your mother?” he asks.

“Electro,” Jazzy breathes.

Jazzy sees his lips curl up into a smile. “Exactly,” Jackal confirms. “The Mother of All.”

Spider-Man makes an unnerved noise. “You didn’t tell me you have to deal with a cult,” he directs at Jazzy. “The more I hear about Electro the weirder she gets.”

“Gods, I know,” Jazzy groans. “Care to tell us why she sent you?”

“No, I don’t think I will, not after you’ve disrespected her so blatantly,” Jackal growls, smile turning into a sneer. He lunges at Jazzy, the latter flipping to the side and barely dodging a pair of claws that crackle with electricity.

**‘There’s something else on those claws,’** Anguish warns. **‘Be careful Jazzy.’**

“Watch the claws!” Jazzy shouts at Spidey.

“Oh, like I wasn’t going to do that anyway,” he snarks back. He sidesteps Jackal’s attack and shoots a web over his mask’s eyes. The webbing doesn’t seem to deter him as he slashes Peter’s arm, electricity causing ripples through Venom.

“What did I tell you, Web Head?” Jazzy mutters. Jackal whips around to face her. Dancing Spider swings her fist at him, hitting him across the face and knocking the mask off. He faces her with a snarl, the upper half of his face scarred and twisted, eyes milky white and unseeing. “Oh, hi.”

His clawed hand grabs Jazzy’s shoulder. “Hold still.”

“Yeah, no,” Jazzy replies, twisting and knocking her elbow into his jaw. Grabbing his arm, she flips over it, twisting the limb in the process. Jackal shouts. Dancer throws him over her head where Spidey kicks him down to the roof. Jazzy walks over to the stunned cultist. “Stay down, Jackal, you’re beat.” She squats beside him.

“Don’t be so sure,” he replies with a smile.

“You seem pretty beat to me,” Spidey states, crouching next to Dancing Spider. Jackal chuckles, tilting his face away from them. His hand shoots toward Jazzy’s thigh, pointer finger extended. Anguish pushes it away and toward Peter. “Hey!” he shouts as the claw buries into his leg. Spider-Man pulls he claw from his leg and webs the Jackal’s hand to the roof before webbing up the rest of his body. Spidey turns to Jazzy. “What the hell?”

“I didn’t mean to do that,” she immediately defends. “Instinct.”

“Your instincts need work.” Spider-Man turns and thwips his way down the street.

Jazzy sighs. She picks up the Jackal’s mask and turns it around in her hands. Then she puts it on Jackal’s chest before dropping down into the closest alleyway and letting Anguish remove the guise of her spider suit. She makes her way to ESU, hoping nothing else stops her.


	23. Chapter 23

“Someone’s late to the party,” Harry says in way of greeting after he opens the door to his dorm. Jazzy shrugs. “I’m assuming weird shit.”

“Yeah, talked to Spidey about Venom and then this guy called the Jackal attacked us and apparently Electro’s cult is spreading across the country. Yay,” Jazzy deadpans.

“Guessing Jackal’s a Child of Electro, or whatever the fuck they call themselves,” Harry says. “I can’t be bothered to care.”

“I wish that was the case for me,” Jazzy mutters as she enters the dorm. “Hey Flash.”

“Hey,” the jock greets, turning his chair to face the door. “How’s it going?”

“Oh, yanno, got attacked by a cult follower of my ex-roommate, the usual,” Jazzy laughs. “What have you guys been up to?” She hops onto Flash’s bed and kicks her shoes off.

“Harry’s been pining after Peter, like usual,” Flash informs. “I’ve been struggling in class like always.”

“Do you want help? I might be able to help,” Jazzy says. “Unless it’s science then good luck buddy.”

“Well, shit, it’s science,” Flash responds. Harry laughs.

“I told you, you could ask Peter for help,” Harry says. “I know you don’t really like him, but he’s good at science.”

“Yeah, except he’s being a complete dick lately,” Flash says. “He even snapped at you today.”

Harry frowns. “He’s just having a bad day.” Flash raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “Look, it’s not a big deal.”

“It is,” Jazzy chimes in. “You know why, Harry.”

“Jazzy, it’s not like that, I just said something I shouldn’t have.”

“That’s bullshit,” Flash scoffs. “He overreacted.” Flash gets up and sits down next to Jazzy. “And he said some shit to me that’s really fucking similar to some shit my dad has said.”

“Your dad?” Jazzy wonders. Flash’s expression sours. “I’m gonna guess he’s not dad of the year.”

“Far from it,” Flash practically growls. “Don’t wanna talk about him.”

“Okay, fair,” Jazzy says, leaning against him.

“Whatever Peter said,” Harry says, “he probably didn’t mean it, and he doesn’t know about your dad, so it’s not like he meant to sound like him.” Harry shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter right now, we can’t talk to him about it at the moment. Are you two dating?”

“That’s a change of topic,” Jazzy mutters.

“I don’t know,” Flash replies. “Do you want to be my girlfriend, Jazzy?”

**‘Yes you do,’** Anguish mutters. **‘And Flash’s dad sounds like Norman, let’s eat him.’**

“Yeah, I do, Flash,” Jazzy says with a soft sigh.

“Sounds like some wedding vows,” Harry points out. “You may now kiss the bride.”

“Harry, please,” Jazzy laughs.

“Okay.” Flash leans over, tilting Jazzy’s chin up and presses their lips together. Jazzy can’t help but to smile into the kiss.

“Wow, does this mean you’re married now?”

“Are you an officiant?” Jazzy asks.

Harry laughs. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Wouldn’t count anyway, no witness,” Flash adds with a smirk. “So, what do you guys wanna do?”

“Three person party,” Jazzy replies immediately. “I don’t know, what’s there to do?”

“A lot, it’s New York,” Harry answers. “We could continue looking at buildings for the disco café, or we could--” Harry breaks off into a coughing fit. He turns to the side and coughs into his hands, doubling over. Flash stands up and hands a tissue over to his roommate. Harry takes it and continues coughing, eyes screwed shut.

“Harry?” Jazzy asks, worried. He waves his hand at her in response.

“Dude, you really gotta see a doctor,” Flash says, rubbing circles into Harry’s back.

“I-I know,” Harry manages between coughs. They eventually dwindle and Harry wipes his mouth with the tissue, tossing it into his trash bin. “I’m okay.”

“You sure? Those coughs sounded really bad,” Jazzy says.

“Yeah, fine, I’ll go see a doctor next week.” A couple more lingering coughs escape his throat. “We could watch a movie,” Harry suggests. “Or binge watch Star Trek.”

“I thought Flash didn’t like Star Trek,” Jazzy says.

“Well,” Flash mutters, rather sheepishly, “I started watching it, and it’s not bad.”

“I’m always down for a Star Trek binge,” Jazzy says. “Are you caught up with me, Thompson? I’m on season two.”

“Just started season two, so we’ll start there?” Flash asks, looking to Harry.

“Yeah, whatever works.”

The three of them get comfortable on the beds. Harry turns the small TV on, finding the second season of the original Star Trek and playing it from the beginning.


	24. Chapter 24

“You know we’re leaving tomorrow,” Eddie says to Jazzy, pacing across their hotel room. “We need to get Venom back, I can’t just leave him here.”

“I know, Eddie,” Jazzy soothes. “I’ve been trying, but Spider-Man won’t listen to me. He’s letting Venom take some ounce of control, whether he realizes it or not.”

Eddie crashes on his bed. “Why won’t he come back to me? He always has before.”

“I don’t know.”

**‘Maybe Peter’s blood tastes good.’**

Jazzy narrows her eyes. “Do you drink my blood?”

**‘A little every day. Makes me feel closer to you.’** Jazzy opens her mouth then closes it again. **‘Speechless, huh? It’s not enough to affect your bodily functions.’**

“What are you saying, Guish?”

**‘I’m saying that Peter’s blood probably tastes really good, maybe gives a boost of some sort, and my parent doesn’t want to give it up.’**

“Like an addiction,” Jazzy states. “That’s interesting.”

“What’s like an addiction?” Eddie asks.

“Spidey’s blood, possibly,” Jazzy explains. “At least that’s what it sounded like from the way that Anguish explained it to me. Symbiotes drink blood, the damn vampires.” Anguish chuckles.

“So, what? Spider-Man’s blood tastes better than mine?”

“Maybe it's the radioactivity.” Jazzy’s phone buzzes. She frowns and grabs it from the nightstand.

**Peters pissed and started shouting at venom to leave i think you should go find him** reads the message from Harry.

**Whered he go?** Jazzy quickly responds.

**Dont know went toward the old church i think Eddie will know what im talking about**

Jazzy passes the information onto her mentor. He stands up and slips his shoes on, gesturing for Jazzy to do the same. “I know that church,” he mutters repeatedly. Jazzy puts her boots on and quickly shoves her arms through her hoodie, grabbing her purse. Eddie’s already out of the room by the time Jazzy’s ready and she has to jog to catch up with him at the elevators. Eddie practically runs down the street, Jazzy following after him, doing her best to keep him in her line of sight.

“Eddie, can you slow down?” Jazzy nearly shouts. “I have short legs.”

“No, I won’t slow down, if he wants to get rid of V then he might do something harmful to him, I can’t let that happen.” They turn the corner and Jazzy sees an old stone church with a beautiful spire, church bells ringing out despite the odd hour. The closer they get to the church, the more Anguish squirms beneath Jazzy’s skin. Eddie pushes the door open and Jazzy doubles over, collapsing against the wall as an involuntary scream rips from her throat. She grabs her head in her hands and slides down to the sidewalk. Anguish ricochets inside her, fighting to stay put as the bells clang inside Jazzy’s head.

**‘No!’** Anguish shrieks. Jazzy weakly pulls herself away from the church entrance, managing to clamber to her feet where the building ends. She leans against the wall and breathes heavily, Anguish calming slightly and the pain diminishing. Jazzy finds a bench and slumps into it. **‘No, no church.’**

“Yeah, I’ve never been particularly fond of them anyway,” Jazzy breathes. She sits up straighter as realization hits her. “Venom, if you...then he...shit!”

**‘Nothing we can do,’** Anguish tells her. **‘Hurts too much, let Eddie handle it.’** Jazzy breathes deeply, head leaning against the church wall. Her eyes slip shut despite the bells continuing to ring and Anguish still squirming.

When the bells stop, Jazzy peers around the corner, looking up to the bell tower and seeing a nearly naked Peter Parker with a makeshift mask swing out the window. Jazzy gets up and rushes into the church, finding Eddie kneeling under the bells, hands cupped in front of him.

“Eddie?” Jazzy whispers, voice echoing in the empty church. “Is Venom okay?”

“I got him,” Eddie mutters back. “We have us.”

Jazzy crouches beside him. “Okay, then let’s get out of here, yeah?”

Eddie looks up at her, eyes flashing white. “No,” he replies. **“Must find Spider-Man. Kill Spider-Man.”**

“Wow, hey, I don’t know exactly what he did to you, Venom, but you can’t just go and kill him.”

The dark symbiotic flesh wraps around Eddie, forcing him to his feet. **“Hurt us, separated us.”** Venom’s mouth spreads in a toothy grin, tongue lolling out and dripping drool. **“We must kill him.”** Venom bounds upward and out the same window that Peter did before. Jazzy heads outside and sees the shadow-like beast following the same path as Spider-Man’s. She huffs in frustration and runs a hand under her hair.

“Shit.”


	25. Chapter 25

Jazzy stops by the hotel room, hoping that Eddie is waiting for her there, but he’s not. She groans and grabs Link’s leash, taking her puppy with her to Empire State University. Jazzy makes a beeline for Harry’s dorm, pounding on his door when she gets there. He opens it with a vaguely annoyed expression.

“Oh, Jazzy, what--”

“Where’s Peter?” she asks, cutting him off. “Is Flash here?”

“Uh, why? And no, Flash isn’t here.”

“He really pissed off Venom.”

Harry looks behind her and down the hallway before pulling her into the dorm. “Venom pissed him off first.”

“Yeah, but here’s the difference,” Jazzy says, unhooking Link’s leash and letting him jump onto Harry’s bed where Midna is asleep on his pillow. “Peter doesn’t kill anyone, but Venom does, and he really wants to kill Peter.”

Harry narrows his eyes. “What happened?”

“I’m...not entirely sure. He wanted to get rid of Venom, I guess, so he went to the church and used the church bells to get him off. Venom rebonded with Eddie, I didn’t see any of this happen because the church bells hurt symbiotes.”

**‘Painful sounds, my parent could have died.’**

“He could have…” Jazzy blinks. “Oh, so Peter almost killed Venom. That explains why he wants to kill him.”

“I don’t think Peter meant to, that doesn’t sound like him,” Harry defends. “And Eddie will stop him, right?”

**“Probably not,”** Anguish answers, peeking out from Jazzy’s abdomen. **“But we can, if we want.”**

“I’m gonna say we want to,” Jazzy says. She frowns. “We can’t stop him.”

“We can, we’re stronger than our parents, you just need to let go.”

Jazzy shakes her head. “Okay, not the point, where’s Peter? I need to at least warn him.”

“He’s probably in his dorm,” Harry replies. We can go check, you can leave Link here, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“Okay, yeah let’s do that.” They head down the hallway to Peter and Harley’s room. Harry knocks on the door but receives no answer. Harry runs a hand through his hair before leaning against the door and pulling his phone out. He taps his foot as he waits for Peter to answer his call.

“Yeah, hey Pete, you okay?” Harry greets. Jazzy leans beside him. “Yeah, no, I just...yeah, yeah, yeah. Where are you right now? ...Baxter Building? Why? ...Oh, that makes sense...Jazzy says Venom wants to kill you.” Jazzy snorts. “I just want to make sure you’re safe. Okay, bye, I’ll see you soon.” Harry puts his phone back into his pocket.   
“So, he didn’t have his suit so he went to the Fantastic Four to get a temporary replacement. He’ll be fine as long as he’s there.”

“But he’ll leave eventually,” Jazzy states. “I’m gonna go meet him there, okay? Watch Link?”

“Sure thing, Jazz, don’t get jumped by anyone.”

“And you don’t die, but I feel like I should be saying that to Peter not you right now.”

Harry laughs and gives Jazzy a brief hug before heading back to his dorm. “Have fun.”

“I’ll try.”

Jazzy heads down the stairs and out of the building. She makes her way to a nearby rooftop via fire escape. Anguish wraps her body in her suit on the way up.

**‘Do you know where the Baxter Building is?’**

“Uh, no, but that’s easy enough to look up,” Jazzy replies. Retrieving her phone and quickly searching for the location of said building. Jazzy studies the map briefly before making her way to the Fantastic Four headquarters. Jazzy quickly makes out the building, a large 4 gleaming from the top. Jazzy perches on the roof of the building adjacent, deducing that Peter will leave from the side of the building closest to his dorm. She sits down on the edge of the roof and swings her feet, looking down and watching people pass below.

**‘Venom should be close by,’** Anguish mentions. **‘We could search for him.’**

“We could, but then we might miss Spidey and that would be annoying,” Jazzy replies. She tilts her head back and her hood falls around her shoulders. A window on the side of the Baxter Building opens and a stream of flame shoots out. Anguish squirms. “Relax, it’s just Johnny Storm being Johnny Storm.” Jazzy hears an indistinguishable shout before Spider-Man swings out wearing a Fantastic Four suit, minus the boots, and a brown paper bag over his head. Jazzy stares before getting up and jumping after him. She notices a yellow square with the words “Kick me!” on his back. Anguish laughs.

Jazzy sees Spider-Man twist in midair as Venom shoots out from an alleyway and tackles him into the side of a building. Jazzy heads after them, landing on the side of a building.

“Hey!” she shouts at them as Venom raises a clawed hand over Spidey’s face. “I thought I said you can’t just go and kill him!” Venom looks over at her and Peter kicks the symbiote off, launching him across the street.

“I don’t _want_ you anymore!” Peter shouts at Venom. “You hurt my friends! Get out of my city!”

Jazzy crawls over to him. “What did he do?” she asks Peter.

He turns to her and she can feel the anger radiating from him. “It made me lash out at Harry, Em-Jay, and Aunt May. That thing is dangerous and needs to be destroyed.”

“Wow, hey, that _thing_ is a living being with a consciousness and intelligence, you can’t just go and destroy him just as he can’t do the same to you.”

Spidey laughs bitterly. “Yeah, that’s right, Eddie’s not the only one that’s been corrupted by one of them.”

**‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’** Anguish growls, prickling against Jazzy’s skin.

“We aren’t corrupted, Spider-Man,” Jazzy hisses.

Venom swings over, shattering the bricks between the two spiders. **“Stay out of this, Jazzy,”** he says, turning toward Spider-Man. Jazzy takes a step backward and notices that a white spider similar to the one that spread across Spidey’s chest takes up most of Venom’s chest and back. **“We don’t want to hurt you.”**

**‘We should just let him kill Peter,’** Anguish suggests.

“I thought about that,” Jazzy replies, “but I don’t want to hurt Harry.”

**‘He hurt Flash.’**

Jazzy freezes and watches, unable to decide whether to step in or not, as Venom and Peter circle each other, throwing punches and shooting webs as brick crumbles down to the street below. Venom drags him across the wall, paper mask ripping at the back. Spider-Man throws him off, shooting webs at the symbiote’s face. Venom licks the webs off before coming at him again.

**‘Decide, Jazzy. What has Peter ever done for you? What has Eddie and Venom? Remember what Mysterio told us?’**

Jazzy closes her eyes and breathes in deep. “I can’t let him die, Guish, I can’t do that to Harry. Spidey wouldn’t let me die.” She opens her eyes to find Spider-Man pinned under Venom. Jazzy shoves her arm between the two, pushing at Venom’s solid chest.

**“What are you doing?”** the symbiote asks her, looking down at her hand.

“Stopping you, like I promised,” Jazzy explains. She shoves Venom off of Spider-Man, helping Peter to his feet.

“Thanks,” Peter says, sounding shocked.

“Yeah, pay me back by not killing Venom, alright? We’re heading back to San Fran tomorrow anyway.”

“Okay, yeah, I can do that.”

“Go home, Spidey, I got this.”

Venom stands up and growls, lunging toward the spiders. Peter swings himself onto the roof as Jazzy side steps. **“Why are you helping him? He hates us, he hates symbiotes.”**

“Yeah, I got that, but I can’t let you do this. Think Eddie! Venom knows who he is, so you do too, he’s just a fucking kid. You really want a kid’s blood on your hands?”

Venom frowns and stops. **“He tried to kill us.”** Venom stumbles backward. **“No, Eddie.”**

“Yes, Eddie,” Spidey says from the roof. “Killing spiders is bad, they get rid of pests. Like you.”

“Not helping, Spidey,” Jazzy says with an eye roll. “Go home.”

“No, I can’t just walk away from this.” He drops down, feet hitting hard against Venom’s head, the symbiote falling to the street, Peter landing gracefully next to him. Jazzy drops down as well as Peter webs Venom down. Venom rips through them easily, springing up with his arm stretched out to grab Spider-Man’s neck. Jazzy steps between them and punches Venom back.

“I really don’t wanna hurt you, man,” Jazzy says, arms out to her sides.

**“You’re doing it anyway.”**

“Yeah, guess I am.” She slides between Venom’s legs and kicks up, hitting the back of his knee and forcing him down. “Hypnotize him,” she tells Anguish.

**‘Does it work on symbiotes?’**

“Don’t know, guess we’ll find out.” Sparkling mist travels from Jazzy’s hand and wraps around Venom’s head. His head hangs down and Spider-Man looks between them.

“What did you do?” he asks Jazzy.

“Hypnotized him, that’s what.” She walks around to Venom’s front. “Go into that alleyway and let Eddie have control.” Venom stands up and slumps into the alley, retreating back inside Eddie’s body once there. Jazzy and Peter follow him. “Okay, Eddie, wake up.” Eddie blinks and looks around.

“Did you hypnotize us?” Eddie asks, sounding annoyed and angry. “What the hell are you doing, Jazzy?”

“I’m stopping you from killing my friend, fuck Eddie, get your shit together,” Jazzy snaps. “We had one rule here, you made it, no killing anyone.”

“You don’t understand, Jazlyn,” Eddie shouts, pointing at her then at Spider-Man. “He doesn’t care about symbiotes, any of them, and he tried to kill Venom just to get him off. I can’t just do nothing about that, we thought maybe at least you’d understand. Didn’t you want to kill Wolff?”

Jazzy clenches her jaw. “Yeah I want to kill him, but I didn’t, I still haven’t and I’ve had multiple chances to do so. Don’t you only just kill bad people?”

**‘He is bad though,’** Anguish grumbles.

“No, he just doesn’t understand symbiotes, I think,” Jazzy defends.

**‘Oh, you’re taking his side.’**

“I’m not taking anyone’s side. I’m just telling Eddie that he shouldn’t be hypocritical when he says we aren’t going to kill anyone during our trip. And you Spidey,” she says, turning to Peter. “Symbiotes aren’t bad, you just need to work on yourself first.”

“Oh that’s rich,” Spidey grumbles. “Yeah, because I totally would have snapped at the three people I care about most in this world without the symbiote.”

“Clearly you’ve thought about it since Venom only encourages you to act on emotions that are already there,” Eddie responds.

“You’re both impossible,” Jazzy mumbles, looking up to the periwinkle sky. “You’re back says kick me,” she adds.

Peter reaches around and grabs the sticky note from his back. He sighs. “God fucking dammit Johnny.” He crumples the piece of paper up. “Whatever, you guys figure out...uh whatever you need to figure out, I need to change.” Peter swings up and out of sight.

“You’re just going to let him go,” Eddie states. Jazzy nods. “Can you unhypnotize Venom?”

“Yeah, sure, wake up Venom,” Jazzy says. A low growl emanates from Eddie’s body. “I know, I know, neither of you are happy at me, hell I don’t think Anguish is happy at me, but I’m not letting you kill Spider-Man alright?”

“Why not?” Eddie asks.

“You know who he is right?”

“Peter Parker, yeah.”

“Yeah, he’s the same age as Harry, younger actually, and Harry loves him, and Harry’s my best friend and he’s been through enough shit already. I’m not gonna let him lose his best friend, alright?” She shakes her head and sighs. “I’ll meet you back at the hotel, I need to go pick up Link.” Jazzy leaps onto the roof and makes her way back to ESU.


	26. Chapter 26

It’s the next day when she sees Peter again. Her and Eddie head to ESU and Jazzy heads up to Harry and Peter’s hall, leaving Eddie to wait outside with Link. She’s about to knock on Harry and Flash’s door when Peter steps out of his room.

“Oh, hey Jazzy,” he greets, heading over to where she stands. “You’re leaving today right?”

“Yeah, came to say bye,” she responds. “How are you doing?”

“Uh, I don’t know, I feel like myself again, but I don’t know if that’s good.” Peter rubs the back of his head. “Thanks for helping me out though, I would’ve understood you not helping.”

“Because of Anguish.” Peter nods. “Hey, I told Harry I was gonna look after you and make sure you weren’t killed. And it doesn’t really bother me as long as you can distinguish symbiotes.”

“Well, I don’t know Anguish all that well,” Peter says.

Jazzy stares at him. “Why do you wear glasses?”

“They help me focus,” he replies. “They aren’t, like, normal glasses, I made them for my eyes so that they don’t take in everything at once, you know?”

“That sounds so helpful,” Jazzy says. “Can you make me a pair?”

Peter laughs. “Sure, if you come over during winter break. I need more time to study those eyes of yours.”

Jazzy snorts. “Fair enough. You going to see Harry too?”

“Oh yeah, always.” Peter knocks on the door and there’s an almost immediate answer.

“Hey,” Flash greets, looking confusedly at Peter.

“Hey Flash man,” Jazzy greets, leaning up on her toes and pressing a kiss to his cheek. Flash’s lips quirk upward but he continues to stare at Peter. “Gonna let us in?”

“Yeah,” Flash says, narrowing his eyes at Peter before stepping aside.

“I forgot you guys are dating,” Peter mumbles as Jazzy enters the dorm. “Weird.”

“How is it weird?” Jazzy wonders, immediately plopping herself down on Flash’s bed.

“Everything with Flash is weird,” Peter says. “Really, really weird. College made it weirder.”

“Because you guys are actually being kinda nice to each other now?” Harry asks from his desk, turning in his chair with a smile. “Hi Jazz.”

“Sup Har,” Jazzy replies.

“Because Flash is being nice to me,” Peter corrects Harry.

“And you’re being a dick,” Flash adds, sitting next to Jazzy. Peter shifts on his feet and looks at the floor.

“Sorry, I wasn’t exactly myself this week,” Peter mumbles. “Thanks for kicking some sense into me.”

“What?” Harry wonders.

“I told him he was being a dick and now he’s not, simple,” Flash explains. “And you’re welcome, Parker.”

Midna mewls and leaps into Jazzy’s lap. Jazzy runs her hand along the cat’s back, scratching behind her ears. “I’m gonna miss you Midna,” she sings. Midna meows in response. Harry breaks down into a coughing fit and Peter rubs circles into his back. “Get better soon, Harry.”

“I’ll try,” he rasps. “Coughing sucks.”

“How long have you got, Jazzy?” Flash asks. “Enough time to grab some lunch?”

“Unfortunately no,” Jazzy replies. “I just stopped by to say goodbye.”

**‘Get a couple more kisses.’**

“That too Anguish, that too.”

Flash looks between Jazzy and Peter, alarmed. “Parker doesn’t know, does he?” Flash whispers. Peter looks over at them.

“He knows about Anguish, knows about me being all spidery too,” Jazzy says nonchalantly. “Didn’t feel it necessary keeping it a secret since he hangs out with Harry a fuckton.”

“I know about Eddie too,” Peter adds.

“Why’d Eddie tell you?” Flash asks.

“He didn’t, uh, he really didn’t mean to,” Peter mutters.

“You better not tell anyone, Parker,” Flash threatens.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Peter placates, holding his hands up. “Honestly I feel like you’re more likely to tell someone, even if it’s just for the attention.”

“Peter,” Harry scolds.

“Oh yeah is that right? I’ve known longer than you have, you don’t have a right to say what I’ll do,” Flash growls, voice raising in volume.

“Hey, hey, maybe don’t argue right now,” Harry says, eyes shifting between them. “Please?”

Flash crosses his arms. “Fine, if Parker will behave.”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk about behaving,” Peter grumbles, rolling his eyes.

“Quit it, Peter,” Jazzy snaps. She twists and places her hand on Flash’s chest, the other still absently petting Midna. Flash looks down at her, eyes softening minutely. Flash leans down and kisses her, Jazzy’s eyes closing with bliss.

“Oh my god,” Peter mumbles. Harry chuckles.

“Yeah, like you don’t kiss your girlfriend in front of people,” Flash says, a smirk on his face. “Grow up.” Peter laughs and rolls his eyes.

Jazzy quickly presses another kiss to Flash’s lips. “I gotta go,” she says. Jazzy picks Midna up and gently places her on the bed. She stands up and walks over to Harry. “I’ll see you, uh, sometime, winter break probably,” Jazzy says. Harry stands up and embraces her. “Bye Harry, go to a doctor.”

“Bye Jazzy, don’t get jumped by anyone,” Harry replies.

“Don’t die,” Jazzy returns. She turns to Peter. “Be good.”

“You don’t trust me?” Peter asks.

“Eh,” she says with a shrug, causing him and Harry to laugh. Jazzy turns to Flash to see him putting on sneakers. “You gonna walk me out?”

“Yeah,” Flash replies. “Gotta say bye to Link and Eddie too.”

Jazzy smiles and tilts her head. “Well come on, Flash man, I don’t got all day.” Flash grins and opens the dorm door. Jazzy follows him, turning back in the doorway and waving at Harry and Peter one last time before heading down the hallway and out of the building. “Hey Eddie, I’m ready to go, more or less.”

“Good, but you need to put Link in his crate,” Eddie replies, refusing to make eye contact with Jazzy. He looks over at the football player beside her. “Hey Flash.”

“Hey Eddie,” Flash greets. He squats down and pets Link. “Hey buddy.” He looks up at Eddie as Link laps at his face. “Venom alright?”

“Yeah, more or less,” Eddie replies. “Angry.”

“What did Spidey do?” Flash mumbles.

“Almost killed him,” Eddie responds. “V’s also pissed at Jazzy.” Eddie gives her a sideways glance.

“I wasn’t going to have you kill Spider-Man, alright?” Jazzy defends. “Be mad at me if you want, but I have responsibilities too.”

**‘Some of those responsibilities are to me,’** Anguish mentions.

“Yeah, but Spidey didn’t try to kill you, Guish.”

**‘You know what I mean.’**

Jazzy groans in frustration. “This week was complicated and stressful,” she tells Flash. “But at the same time pretty great.”

Flash grins at her. “Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?” He stands up. “I’ll let you guys get to the airport. Have a safe trip, don’t die, don’t kill anyone, don’t kill each other.”

“Bye Flash, be good in school,” Eddie tells him, clapping the jock on the shoulder.

“No promises,” Flash replies. He turns to Jazzy. “See you winter break?” He bites his bottom lip.

“Yeah, hopefully,” Jazzy replies. “See ya, Flash.”

Flash bends down and presses a kiss to Jazzy’s lips. She lifts onto her toes and brings her hands up to his shoulders. “Yeah, see ya,” he says, barely pulling away.  
Jazzy sinks back down to her feet and starts walking away with Eddie, looking back every so often to Flash leaning against the wall and watching them go.


	27. Chapter 27

“I forgot to ask,” Gwen says as her and Jazzy walk toward Jubilee Plaza roughly a week later, “how was your trip? Did you eat pizza?”

“I did eat pizza, one of the first things I had when I got there,” Jazzy replies. “It was eventful, meeting Tony Stark was cool, I met Peter Parker and saw Harry and Flash again.” Jazzy smiles wistfully, stomach twisting. “Flash asked me out.”

“Yeah?” Gwen asks, turning to look at Jazzy. “And?”

“We went stargazing and he’s my boyfriend now.” Jazzy looks over at Gwen and smirks. “He’s a great kisser too.”

Gwen responds with an eyebrow wiggle. “Sounds like you had a great time.”

“Yeah,” Jazzy says, not wanting to go into anything else. “So, what are you gonna do for Halloween?”

“Oh that’s this month, right,” Gwen mutters. “Uh, I don’t know, I was thinking maybe I’d dress as Dancing Spider.”

**‘Oh, she likes you,’** Anguish purrs.

“That would be super cool,” Jazzy says, smile widening. “I could help you make it, I’m really good at sewing.”

“That would be great,” Gwen sighs. “What about you?”

“I don’t know, I’ll figure something out,” Jazzy replies. They enter Jubilee Plaza and stop by the food court for some lunch before heading up to the roof. They sit down on the grassy area and set their food between them. “What happened while I was gone? Any super villains come and wreak some havoc?”

“There were a few people that robbed some stores, said it was for ‘the Mother’ whatever the hell that means,” Gwen tells her. “But no Goblin or Electro, or anyone like that.”

**‘Levina knew you were in New York,’** Anguish mentions, flashing the fight with Jackal through her host’s mind. **‘What if Goblin knows who you are too?’**

I don’t know why he would, Jazzy responds to Anguish. To Gwen she says, “That’s good, then, right?”

“Yeah, no power outages or anything was nice.” Gwen leans back on her hands. “Who’s the Mother?”

“Levina--uh, I mean, Electro,” Jazzy responds, hastily correcting the name.

“Levina?”

“Yeah, uh, she was my old roommate,” Jazzy mumbles. “Was pretty crazy even then, but not in a ‘I’m going to start a cult and destroy the city’ type of way.”

“I hope I’m a better roommate.”

“By far.”

**‘Is green a normal color for fire?’** Jazzy’s brows draw together. **‘There’s some green fire in the distance.’** Jazzy turns toward where Anguish’s attention is held and notices the green flames licking at the sky. ‘Should we check it out?’

“What are you looking at?” Gwen wonders, leaning toward Jazzy and looking in the same direction. “What is that?”

“Green fire,” Jazzy absent-mindedly replies. “It’s like everything weird only happens when I’m around.”

“Do you want to check it out?” Gwen asks, looking back to Jazzy. “We could if you want to.”

Jazzy frowns. “It’s dangerous.”

“Says the journalist.”

“No, I’m totally down for checking it out, but I don’t want you to get hurt,” Jazzy explains. “I’m used to checking out these sorts of things. You aren’t.”

“I can manage,” Gwen says with a shrug. “I’ve experienced some shit, my dad’s a police officer, remember?”

“Well, if you’re down,” Jazzy says, gesturing vaguely to the spreading flames.

“Yeah, sure, let’s go.” Gwen stands up, picking up their trash and dumping in the closest bin. Jazzy follows her to the elevator before leading her roommate to the source of the flames.

It doesn’t take them long to arrive at a scene of devastation with people scrambling about, some convulsing on the street as emerald fire surrounds them. Jazzy holds Gwen back, looking around for the culprit. She spots a ball of fire brighter than the rest atop a cloaked figure sauntering down the street. A glowing, incorporeal sword rests in the figure’s hand. He turns around and Jazzy’s breath stops. His head is shaped like a pumpkin, a face crudely carved into it; a ghastly mouth agape in a smile spews green flames and the triangular eyes narrow, dimming the fire minutely.

“That sure isn’t human,” Gwen mutters. She shakes her head. “We need to get these people out of here.” Jazzy doesn’t respond, unable to move her limbs as the Jack O’Lantern headed man stalks closer to them. “Jazzy?”

“I can’t,” she whispers haltingly.

“Jazzy, snap out of it,” Gwen hisses, snapping her fingers in front of Jazzy’s face. Jazzy blinks and looks up at Gwen. “We need to move these people, they could die.”

**‘She could too,’** Anguish mutters. **‘So will we with the fire.’**

“I can’t, I can’t do it, Gwen,” Jazzy says with wide eyes. “Not with him.”

“Pumpkin guy?” Gwen asks. Jazzy nods vigorously. She nods in understanding. “Okay, I’ll do it myself.” Gwen rushes toward the nearest person, covering her mouth and nose with her elbow. Jazzy watches as she lifts the convulsing person to their feet and drags them away from flames. She looks at Jazzy. “At least call 911.”

“Y-yeah, okay,” Jazzy stumbles. She pulls her phone out and quickly dials the number.

“911 what’s your emergency?”

“There’s fire everywhere, it’s green, people are hurt, uh and there’s a pumpkin head guy,” Jazzy rushes to explain as Gwen manages to get another two people out of the inferno. She looks at the Jack O’Lantern again and sees him veer towards Gwen. “Please get here as fast as you can.”

“Where is this?” the operator asks. Jazzy quickly tells her. “Dispatch will be there in a few minutes.”

“Okay, thank you,” Jazzy says before hanging up as the figure walks up to Gwen’s back. Jazzy cusses and disappears behind an alleyway, Anguish transforming into her suit. She leaps between the flames and grabs the man’s hand as he raises his mystical sword.

“Backstabbing is so not cool,” Jazzy says as the man turns around, his crude mouth turning into a frown. Jazzy’s body goes rigid as the heat from his head fire blasts into her face. “Then again,” Jazzy squeaks out, “neither are you.” She glances behind her foe at Gwen’s scared yet determined face as she helps the other away from the conflict.

“Hello, Dancing Spider,” a deep, harsh voice mirroring the fire surrounding his head greets. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“Damn, did I really get that famous that fast?” Jazzy wonders aloud. She tries to view his face as a regular human one, but all she can see are the pumpkin lights laughing at her over Jenny’s body.

“Your friend is going to die despite you stopping me, I thought I would just make it quick and not nearly as painful,” he tells her, head swivelling to look at Gwen. “You will too.”

“Yeah? How come?”

His jagged maw angles upward. “Why do you think my fire burns the color it does?”

**‘Toxic.’** Jazzy’s eyes widen. **‘We’ll be fine, I can filter it.’**

“Jokes on you, toxins don’t affect me,” Jazzy says without thinking.

“And your friend? Do they affect her?”

Jazzy lands a solid punch against the creature’s solar plexus, knocking him backwards. She rushes toward where a couple of ambulances have arrived, already loading the injured into them. Gwen helps the EMTs lift the people.

“The flames are toxic,” Dancing Spider gasps as she reaches them.

“What type of toxins?” one of the EMTs ask.

“I don’t know,” Jazzy replies. She turns to Gwen. “You’ve inhaled them.”

“I figured,” Gwen replies. “Have you seen my friend?”

“Yeah, she’s safe, you don’t have to worry about her,” Jazzy replies almost automatically.

**‘If I touch the injured I can draw the toxins out,’** Anguish informs. **‘It might take a while though and he’s already standing back up.’**

“I can draw the toxins out,” Jazzy tells them. “But not with that guy still around.”

“Go stop him, we’ll be fine, the doctors can figure it out,” Gwen says.

“You don’t know that,” Jazzy replies. Anguish sighs in Jazzy’s mind and forcibly takes control of her arm. The symbiote grabs Gwen’s forehead and stretches tendrils out across her face. Anguish quickly lets her go.

**‘Gwen will be fine now,’** Anguish tells Jazzy.

“What was that about?” Gwen nearly shouts.

“Uh, sorry, just, yanno, removing the toxins from your body,” Jazzy replies with a helpless shrug. Anguish forces Jazzy to turn as the pumpkin headed man lifts from the ground and soars toward them. “Shit, hold on.” Dancing Spider leaps toward him, swinging her leg out. Her foot connects just under his head, knocking the jack o’lantern off his shoulders. The body hits the ground on his knees. Jazzy lands, stumbling forward. She looks down at her foot to find it burnt and blistered.

The jack o’lantern head cackles as the body grabs it from the ground. “You will have to try harder than that.” The head is reattached to the broad shoulders. The glowing sword appears in his hand again.

“Now I don’t know whether to call you Jack or the Headless Horseless Man,” Jazzy says, feeling her body shake as he approaches her, sword swishing through the smoke-filled air.

“You think you’re funny, don’t you?”

“Kinda,” Jazzy shrugs. “Hey, how about we fight after I cure everyone?”

“That would defeat the purpose of poisoning them in the first place,” Jack says, stopping and tilting his head in confusion.

“Well, I don’t know, thought I’d ask.” Jazzy leaps to the side as Jack swings his sword. She feels a blast of heat hit her face. “So, uh, what’s with the sword and face?” Jazzy flips backward and kicks her foe in the chest. He barely stumbles. Jazzy hisses as pain shoots up her leg.

**‘Be careful, Jazzy.’**

“Trying, trying really hard,” Jazzy responds.

“Magic,” Jack answers her. “A gift from my lord Dormammu.”

“That sounds cult-y,” Jazzy sighs. “So many cults, not enough time.” Anguish pulls Jazzy to the side and out of the flames. She hears several of the injured violently coughing and retching. “We should help them, huh?” Jazzy asks Anguish.

**‘Probably.’** Jazzy clenches her fist and aims it at a manhole cover. Anguish makes a questioning noise but shoots a tendril from the top of her hand anyway. The symbiote grabs the metal plate and Jazzy swings it into Jack O’Lantern, knocking him into the side of the building. Jazzy turns around and rushes toward the ambulances.

“Move, move, let me heal them,” Jazzy exclaims, grabbing the people just shivering violently in their gurneys, no longer coughing. Anguish draws tendrils around them.

**‘Good, next.’** Dancing Spider slips to the next couple of people, doing the same. **‘Watch it, he’s up.’** Jazzy turns back to face Jack and groans when he recreates his sword. She throws her head back before running toward him, limping on her injured foot.

“For once I would like the person I’m fighting to just stay down,” Jazzy whines. The sword comes swinging down on her. Jazzy steps aside and lifts her arms up, Anguish curling around her forearms to protect them. The sword sears Anguish’s flesh, causing her symbiote to cry out in her mind. The pain makes Jazzy stumble backward. Jack O’Lantern’s grin widens. He thrusts his sword forward. The point stops a hair away from the middle of Jazzy’s heart. Jazzy holds her breath and looks up at Gwen gripping Jack’s elbow tight.

Jack turns around and tosses his sword to his free hand. He slashes across Gwen’s shoulder and she shouts in pain. Jazzy matches her shout and throws all her weight into a kick to Jack’s abdomen. He flies backward and crumples against a building. Dancing Spider moves to his slumped form and twists her legs so her heels face him. She presses hard on the ground and covers his body with her webbing. Jazzy rushes back to Gwen.

“You alright?” she asks her.

“I can deal, go help everyone else,” Gwen replies, clutching at her wound.

Jazzy sighs and picks Gwen up. “You help me, I help you, and that wound looks really bad.” Dancing Spider carries Gwen over to the ambulances, Anguish drawing out any toxins that might have made it into her body from the close proximity with Jack O’Lantern. She sets her roommate down gently on the edge of an ambulance before going around to everyone and pulling out the toxins.

**‘Tired, hungry,’** Anguish tells her once they finish. **‘Need food.’**

“Got that,” Jazzy mutters back. “Are you going in one of the ambulances? I’ll tell your friend,” Jazzy says to Gwen as a few of the ambulances leave the area, sirens blaring and causing Anguish to squirm.

“Are you?” she asks in kind. “You’re pretty badly hurt.”

Jazzy looks down at her leg. “I’ll be fine, I’ve had worse. That cut looks pretty bad though.”

“I’m not going anywhere without my friend, I need to make sure that she’s okay.”

“She’s fine, I promise,” Jazzy says. “And I think she’d want you to go to the hospital, if you do, I’m sure she’ll meet you there.”

Gwen bites her lip and glances around. “Okay, if you say so. I trust you.” Gwen hops into the last ambulance as the fire trucks and police arrive.

Dancing Spider moves out of the way of the firefighters after warning them about the toxic fumes. She watches them put out the fires before the policemen handcuff and arrest Jack O’Lantern. Jazzy smiles.

**‘A win, right?’**

“Right, feels good.”

**‘We should go see Dan.’**

“Right again, Anguish,” Jazzy states. She hops onto a roof and makes her way to the hospital. She hides a block down and her suit disappears. She walks into the ER to find the place bustling. She looks around but doesn’t find Gwen. She heads up to the desk.

“You’re here to see Doctor Lewis, correct?” the lady asks.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Jazzy replies.

“You can go back, he heard you were on your way.”

Jazzy squints but doesn’t ask any questions. She heads to her usual room and finds Dan already inside. Jazzy knocks and he beckons her inside.

“Who told you I was hurt?” she asks.

“No one, but I watch the news,” Dan states. “How’s your foot?”

“Burnt and in pain,” Jazzy replies. She sits down on the bed. “You have been treating other patients, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Okay, just making sure.” Jazzy pulls her pant leg up and removes her shoe, glad that she didn’t wear socks. She grimaces at the sight of the fresh burn, dark blue and ragged. “After you treat my foot,” Jazzy says, “can you tell me where Gwen Stacy is? I told her I’d come and see her.”

“Sure, but you need to take it easy until this heals.”

“You know I’m not gonna do that.”

“Jazzy,” Dan scolds. “Your burns don’t heal quickly.”

“I know.”

Dan treats Jazzy’s burn, disinfecting it despite Jazzy’s reassurances that it isn’t necessary with Anguish, and then wraps it, telling Jazzy how to take care of it. Then he leads her to Gwen’s room.

“Thanks Doctor Lewis,” Jazzy says before entering the room. “Hey Gwen, how are you feeling?”

“Jazzy,” she exclaims, sitting up. “I’m fine, are you okay?” There’s a large bandage wrapped over her shoulder and across her chest and wires poking out from under her hospital gown.

“I’m okay,” Jazzy replies, sitting down in one of the chairs beside the bed. “Snagged my foot on something, so I got it checked out. I’ll be limping for a bit, but it’s nothing serious.”

**‘It would be less serious if we got some food.’**

_Relax._ “So, will you be able to get out today?”

“Yeah,” Gwen replies. “I don’t see why not. You’re welcome to go back to the apartment, I’ll come back when I can.” She tilts her head. “I just wanted to make sure you were safe.”


	28. Chapter 28

Jazzy walks back toward her campus, heavily limping, after she stops by for a quick bite of food. While walking and talking to Anguish, Jazzy’s spider sense goes off. She groans, realizing she’s made her way back to where Jack O’Lantern was.

**‘Up above,’** Anguish tells her. Her eyes cover Jazzy’s showing the figure of the Goblin diving down toward the street.

“I can’t get a break today, fuck,” Jazzy sighs, stumbling into an alley as a bomb whistles past her and explodes in a scream. “I really don’t want to deal with this guy.” Another bomb screams and shakes the ground.

**‘I could take over, but I’d probably kill him.’**

“I don’t mind you killing him, honestly,” Jazzy mutters. “But, we’ll see.” Anguish wraps Jazzy in her suit and she crawls up the wall and around to the streetside of the building. “Hey Goblin!” Dancing Spider shouts. “Couldn’t you have attacked tomorrow or something?”

Goblin swoops down. “Why? Is today inconvenient for you?”

“A little bit, yeah.”

“How unfortunate,” Goblin cackles. He swoops toward Jazzy. She pushes herself off the wall and leaps over his head and onto a lamppost. “You going to run away, Dancing Spider?”

“No, just keeping my distance so I don’t have to smell your BO,” Jazzy replies. Goblin snarls. He charges at her and she lets him grab her by the neck.

**‘What are you doing, Jazzy? We could’ve dodged that.’**

_I know, I have a stupid plan._

**‘You want to unmask him.’**

_Yup._

The Goblin slams Dancing Spider into a wall, Anguish softening the blow. Jazzy takes a deep breath and extends Anguish’s claws. She rakes them across Goblin’s face. One of his orange eyes shatters at her touch, revealing a green eye filled with hate and rage. His dark brow angles lower over the eye. His grip tightens, claws sinking deep into Jazzy’s throat. Jazzy gasps. She feels her blood pouring down her neck.

**‘I got you,’** Anguish continuously reassures. But Jazzy can’t hear her words as her own blood bubbles up her throat.

“I think it’s time I killed you,” Goblin states, reedy voice mixing with the one under his mask, one so familiar, as it sends spikes of ice down Jazzy’s spine. “You are becoming quite the nuisance.” He digs his claws in deeper. Jazzy feels them pierce the other side of her neck. Her eyes widen and her mouth opens in a silent scream under her mask.

Jazzy is vaguely aware of Anguish wrapping around her arms and forcing the Goblin’s hand away from her host’s neck. She sees herself push Goblin across the street before her vision fades to black.


	29. Chapter 29

**“Jazzy, wake up, Jazzy,”** Anguish’s voice sounds above her. Jazzy groans, hand coming up to rub her sore throat. **“Jazzy, come on, get up.”**

“Why…” Jazzy trails off at the sound of her rasping voice. She opens her eyes and sees Anguish peering at her, mouth tugged down in a worried frown and her hair whispering over Jazzy. “Goblin,” she chokes out.

**“He’s not here.”**

“Did you…” Jazzy coughs, unable to get the words out.

**“I did not kill him, as much as I wanted to.”**

“Why?”

Anguish’s frown deepens. **“Burned us.”** Jazzy makes to sit up, but Anguish places a gentle hand against her chest. **“Don’t.”**

“Why not?” Jazzy gets out, looking around the room. She sighs when she notices she’s on Eddie’s couch. “Water.”

**“I’ll get it for you,”** Anguish states, but doesn’t move. **“We’ll be okay.”** Anguish absently finds a glass in one of the cupboards and fills it with tap water. She gently lifts Jazzy’s head with her hand and pours the liquid into her host’s mouth.

“I can drink myself,” Jazzy half-heartedly complains once the glass is empty. “Why are you being so weird right now? I can’t be that hurt, I’m not in much pain. Are you hurt?”

**“Yes, but not as bad as you,”** Anguish replies, tilting her head away from Jazzy’s. **“I’m dampening your pain.”**

Jazzy closes her eyes. “Where am I hurt?” she asks, voice quiet. “I don’t want to look.”

**“Both legs, a little up your side, I healed them as best I could.”**

“I know,” Jazzy mutters. “I know you did.” She feels Anguish raise her upper body and slip a pillow behind her back. “Thank you.” Jazzy takes a shaky breath and opens her eyes. She focuses on the leg that Dan bandaged, some blue seeping into the cream. She looks at her other leg and sees the burn line running across the top of her foot and curling around to the outside of her leg. Jazzy tentatively lifts the hem of her shirt and sees the burn continue up, nearly touching her spiracle.

**“I should have been more careful.”**

“Not your fault, Goblin’s,” Jazzy says, unable to move her eyes. “We should probably go back to the hospital.”

**“Most likely.”**

The sound of the door unlocking catches Jazzy’s attention. Eddie steps backward into the apartment with a grocery bag in his hand. As soon as he closes the door Venom appears and runs his hands over Eddie’s shoulders. Jazzy clears her throat.

“Hey Eddie,” she greets. “Hi Venom.”

The pair freeze and slowly turn to face her and Anguish. “Jazzy, what are you doing here?”

“Got hurt bad, Anguish brought me here.” Jazzy coughs and rubs her neck again. She closes her eyes and feels Goblin’s talons sinking into her flesh. She shivers. “I think I need help getting to the hospital.”

“What happened?” Eddie asks, worry crossing out any other emotion on his face. Venom grumbles, annoyed. Eddie makes his way to the couch.

“Uh, dude with a jack o’lantern head and magic sword gave me that burn,” Jazzy explains, gesturing to her already bandaged foot. “Doctor Lewis already dealt with that one. Then I was gonna go back to my dorm and Goblin attack and gave me the other burn.” Jazzy narrows her eyes. “And Anguish is hurt too.”

“And Goblin?”

“Unfortunately not dead.”

“I’ll call Dan,” Eddie says after a beat of silence. He pulls out his phone as Venom opens the fridge and chugs an entire carton of chocolate milk.

Jazzy tunes out Eddie’s conversation with Dan, instead focusing on Anguish still hovering over her. She searches her symbiote’s body for injuries, but doesn’t find any.

**“What is it?”** Anguish asks her.

“Where are you hurt?” Jazzy responds.

Anguish hums. **“Same place you are, injured part of me is healing inside you.”**

Jazzy bites her lip. “Let me feel the pain.”

**“Are you sure?”** Jazzy nods. **“Okay.”** Anguish’s torso lowers closer to Jazzy’s as a steady stream of pain begins to build up inside of her. Tears prick at Jazzy’s eyes as the pain intensifies and small whimpers escape into the air. She breathes heavily through her clenched teeth. **“Can you handle it?”**

“Yeah, I can handle it,” Jazzy grits out. “What did Dan say?” she directs at Eddie.

“He’ll be ready for you when we get there. I’m going to assume you can’t walk right now.”

“Probably.” Jazzy pushes herself toward the edge of the couch, slowly moving her legs over the edge with the help of Anguish’s soft, gelatinous tendrils. “Thank you.”

**“No problem,”** Anguish replies, sinking below Jazzy’s skin a giving a quiet rumble. **‘Good night.’**

“Feel better, Guish.”

Eddie comes over to her side and wraps an arm under her shoulders, lifting Jazzy off the couch. She slings her arm over his shoulders and leans heavily on him, putting most of her weight on her already bandaged foot.

“Shit, shit,” Jazzy mutters, pain rocketing up her legs.

Eddie picks her up completely. “This better? We’ll carry you to the hospital if we have to.”

“Can you? Thanks, Eddie, I’m sorry about this, I’m sure you have better things to do.”

“It’s alright,” Eddie says, waving away Jazzy’s apology.

**“Not like we were going to work anyway,”** Venom adds. **“Though you did ruin our plans.”**

“My bad, didn’t want the day to go this way either,” Jazzy says.

“Get the door, love?” Eddie asks. Venom grumbles but does before transforming into a well fitting leather jacket.

“Stylish, Venom,” Jazzy states. Eddie chuckles before heading out of the apartment and kicking the door shut. They get several stares as Eddie carries Jazzy to the hospital.   
“This feels familiar, doesn’t it?”

“Not in a good way.”

Once in the hospital, they are quickly found by Dan and led into the same room that Jazzy was in earlier that day. Dan stares at Jazzy for a moment after closing the door.

“So you got into another fight,” he states as Eddie places her on the hospital bed. “With the Goblin, right?”

“Yeah,” Jazzy confirms. “I don’t remember getting this burn,” she adds, honestly. “Anguish took over because I nearly died.”

“What?” Eddie asks.

“He sort of…” Jazzy rubs her neck and grimaces, “shoved his claws clean through my neck. It’s fine though, Anguish healed it, she just can’t heal burns.” Jazzy looks over at Eddie as he rummages in his pants pocket. He hands her a chocolate bar. “Oh, thanks,” Jazzy says, taking the treat. She unwraps it and takes a bite.

“Yeah, I know, love, but Anguish needs the fuel more than we do,” Eddie mutters, sitting down. Jazzy breaks off a piece of the chocolate and hands it back to Eddie. A black tendril whips out and grabs the rough square.

**‘Good,’** Anguish rumbles, voice filled with sleep. **‘Thank you.’**

“No problem,” Jazzy replies. Dan hands her a hospital gown before leaving the room. She blinks down at the blue cloth.

“Do you want me to leave too?” Eddie asks.

“Nah, it’s okay, you can just close your eyes,” Jazzy replies. Eddie does and Jazzy strips off her clothes save for her underwear. She ties her hospital gown and grimaces at the sight of the large burn crawling up her side. Jazzy tosses her clothes onto the chair next to Eddie. “Okay, you can look now.” Eddie’s eyes open. Dan comes back quickly with paperwork. He hands the papers on the clipboard to Jazzy as he begins hooking her up to different wires.

“I might have to keep you here if you’re going to get into another fight tonight,” Dan states. “It would probably be best anyway.”

“Ugh, I don’t wanna stay here overnight,” Jazzy groans. “Just wrap it up, it’ll be fine.”

“How are you going to explain that to Gwen?” Eddie asks.

Jazzy shrugs vaguely as she fills out the forms in front of her. She finishes them quickly and sets them aside. “Hey, Eddie, can I have my phone?”

“Yeah sure,” he replies, patting her pile of clothes before pulling her phone out and tossing it to her. Jazzy catches it and sees a message from Gwen.

**Were are you?** followed by a separate message, **Where***

Jazzy types back, **Something with Eddie came up. I might not be back tonight dont worry.**

**Okay**

Jazzy sighs. She stares at her phone screen for a moment before opening up a new message. **Hows it going flash man?** She stares at the screen awaiting an answer as Dan moves around her and takes care of her burns.

**Pretty good you?**

Jazzy smiles. **Got super burned adn i fought an eveil jack o’lantern dude**

**Ouch you okay?**

**Been better but i’ll heal** Jazzy replies. **How are things in ny?**

**Not as fun without you** comes Flash’s immediate response. Jazzy smiles and feels her heart flutter. **We found a place tho**

**For?**

**Roller disco**

Jazzy laughs and waves away Dan and Eddie’s questioning looks. **When’s it open?**

**I’ll keep you posted**


	30. Chapter 30

Jazzy sighs as she stares at the ceiling from her bed. Gwen looks over from her desk as she’s keeping Jazzy company. Her legs ache, a few muscle spasms occurring in her calves.

“What’s wrong?” Gwen asks her, turning her chair.

“My legs hurt, I want to go out and do something,” Jazzy murmurs. “But doctor’s orders, I can’t do that, I can only go to class,” Jazzy whines, tilting her head on her pillow. “And I’m hungry.”

“I can go run and get you some food, or make you something,” Gwen suggests. “But you’re doctor’s right. Those burns are really bad, will you tell me how you got them?”

“Nope,” Jazzy responds, popping the ‘p.’ She groans.

**‘Are you saying no to food?’** Anguish wonders.

“No, no, I want food, but I’m not gonna tell Gwen about the burns,” Jazzy explains, loud enough for her roommate to hear. “You could just make me a baked potato, honestly. Or two.”

“Okay,” Gwen replies, standing up and heading to the door. “Cheese and butter, right?”

“Yeah, thanks Gwennie.”

“No problem.”

**‘Baked potatoes are good,’** Anguish hums. **‘But we need more food and we need to meet with Sandman.’**

Jazzy curses. “I forgot about that.” She reaches over to the side of her pillow and grabs her phone. She calls Abalos and holds her phone to her ear. “Hey,” she greets when he picks up.

“Hi, you’re late,” he replies immediately. “Where the hell are you? I can’t stay out here forever.”

“Sorry, sorry, I got hurt really bad and my doctor told me to stay at home,” Jazzy explains. “I’ll come over after I eat lunch, if that’s okay.”

“Jazzy,” Abalos grumbles. “I’m a criminal, I can’t just be out here.”

“Then go back inside and I’ll tell you when I’m on my way and you can meet me then.”

“I can’t go back to the Speakeasy without the units, alright? So you either meet me or I go take from some Terran.”

Jazzy bites her lip and looks pleadingly up at the ceiling. “I’ll see what I can do.”

**‘We aren’t missing food.’**

“I know that, Guish.”

“Figure it out in the next fifteen minutes.” Abalos hangs up.

Gwen comes back into Jazzy’s room with a couple of baked potatoes filled with melting cheese and dripping butter rolling around on a plate. “Here you go,” Gwen says with a smile, handing the plate to Jazzy. Jazzy sits up and takes it.

“Thank you,” Jazzy mutters, cutting into one of the potatoes. “I need to meet someone, so maybe don’t tell Eddie or my doctor, please?”

Gwen frowns. “I won’t tell them, but I’m also not letting you leave. If it’s so important then they can just come here and I’ll go back to my room.”

**‘That’s not a bad idea.’**

“Yeah,” Jazzy half-heartedly agrees. She pulls her phone out again and calls Abalos again.

“You figure it out?”

“Yeah, uh, you can come over here,” Jazzy replies. “If that’s okay with you. There’s quite a few people around here, but it’s the best I can do right now.”

“Where are you?”

Jazzy tells him the location of her dorm, taking another bite of potato. “I have a roommate,” Jazzy warns, “and she’ll probably be the one to open the door for you, so be nice.”

“A Terran?” Abalos wonders.

“Yeah, but she’s nice, okay? And she’ll give us our privacy, it’s not a big deal.”

Abalos grumbles indistinctly before replying. “Fine, but I won’t stay long.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Jazzy concedes. “I’ll be waiting here.” She finishes off her potatoes as she waits for Sandman, Gwen playing videos in the background with the door propped open. Jazzy sets her plate to the side. There’s a resounding knock on the door and Gwen gets up to answer it. She quickly comes back with Abalos and Datura trailing after her, Abalos’ eyes shifting and surveying the room.

“I’ll leave you guys alone, just call me if you need anything,” Gwen says, grabbing her laptop and giving Abalos and his daughter a sideways glance before closing the door behind her.

“You live here,” Abalos states.

“For most of the year, yeah,” Jazzy responds. She pushes herself up. “Sorry for not giving you a heads-up, but my legs are pretty badly burned.”

“Couldn’t your Anguish do something about that?”

“Not with burns, they affect her even worse.”

Datura looks around and walks toward the head of Jazzy’s bed. She picks up one of Jazzy’s stuffed animals--a blue T-Rex with a striped night cap. Datura stares at it before turning to her father.

“I do not know,” Abalos responds to whatever she asked him. He turns to Jazzy. “What animal is that?”

“A dinosaur, specifically a T-Rex, but not an accurate depiction,” Jazzy explains. Datura looks back at the plush and smiles. “Do you like it?” Jazzy asks her. Datura looks up, startled, but nods. “Maybe I can get you one, just not that one.”

“Thank you, from both of us,” Abalos passes on. Jazzy smiles. “But back to why I’m here.”

“Right, you need units, no problem,” Jazzy says. She shuffles herself to the foot of her bed and transfers units to Abalos.

“That’s not all I need,” he says after thanking her again. “I need Norman Osborn dead.”

“I’ve already told you that I can’t kill him, not without Harry’s consent.”

“You realize how ridiculous that sounds, yes?”

**‘It is ridiculous,’** Anguish agrees. **‘You need someone’s permission to kill another, the one we’d kill not being the one giving permission.’**

“Yeah, I do realize that it sounds ridiculous, but I respect Harry and so I’ll respect his wishes. If he doesn’t want his father to die then I won’t kill him, but I won’t stop anyone else from trying.” Jazzy sighs. “I want him dead too.”

“Then tell Harry that his father needs to die,” Abalos states. “I will help you, or I’ll do it by myself.”

“Norman is stronger than he appears,” Jazzy says. “He was able to withstand me launching him into a wall and he didn’t even seem affected by it, so you better be really fucking careful if you’re going to go after him.”

**‘Don’t forget that he’d be made out as the worst person ever.’**

“That too,” Jazzy agrees. “I’m also not going to kill him until I can prove that he’s as corrupt as a lot of people say, and I know that he is because of you, but I can’t really rely on the word of a criminal.”

“He tried to kill you, use your word.”

“I’m so biased against him people will think I’m lying and the only witness is Harry, and his testimony isn’t very reliable either because he’s schizophrenic and it could be argued that he was hallucinating,” Jazzy explains. “Also I have no credibility, so there’s no reason for anyone to believe me anyway.”

“Are you working on it?”

“Yeah, with Eddie Brock.”

“Tch, like Brock cares about people other than Terrans,” Abalos grumbles. Datura puts the dinosaur down and picks up Jazzy’s wolf plush.

“He does, actually,” Jazzy says. “He’s bonded with a symbiote too.” Abalos gives her a strange look. “The Demon of San Francisco, Venom? That’s them.”

Abalos stays quiet for a moment. “He kills other people? I respect him more. Maybe he’ll help me kill Norman if you won’t.”

“I never said I wouldn’t help,” Jazzy states. “I’m saying bring him down, make him lose everything first and that’ll make his death so much sweeter.”


	31. Chapter 31

**You ever wonder what jenny would be doing right now?** Chey texts Jazzy in the middle of the night a couple of weeks later. **She says jenny’s in the light**

**Who’s she?** Jazzy asks. **Chey is everything alrgitht**

**Dont tell me you dont think about her**

**Of course i do, she was my girlfriend** Jazzy bites her lip and looks worriedly at her phone. **Who said jenny’s n the light?**

**Electro** Chey responds. **She knows things**

**Chey where are you? Youc an’t trust elector**

**She says its dancing spiders fault**

Jazzy curses. **‘What?’** Anguish mumbles, awaking from her near sleep state. **‘What’s happening with Electro?’**

“She found Chey and she’s playing her,” Jazzy explains. She swings herself out of bed and gingerly sets her feet on the floor. “We have to find her, we have to stop Levina, Chey doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into.”

**‘You’re still healing.’**

“Don’t care, Chey’s my friend and Levina’s using Jenny against her. I can’t let her get away with this.” Jazzy grabs a relatively thick coat and puts it on. “Can you find Electro?”

**‘Yes,’** Anguish replies.

“Take me to her.” Anguish wraps around her, taking full control and numbing Jazzy’s pain. They leap out of the window and head toward a brightly lit area among the trees lining the Bay.

Anguish crouches in the trees, looking down at a group of people with Levina glowing at their center. Chey is standing in front of her, looking at Levina with rapt attention. Jazzy can barely make out the other figures, though she spots Wolff’s digitigrade legs and unruly scruff along with Jackal’s distinct mask.

“Join us, and I promise you will be able to see Jenny again,” Levina tells Chey. “And you can help us bring Dancing Spider the justice she deserves.”

Anguish growls and drops down next to Electro and Chey. **“Sorry, am I interrupting?”**

Electro swirls around, shimmering cloak fluttering around her as sparks flicker across her arms. She smiles. “I know that’s you, Dancing Spider, hidden beneath that creature. Jackal told me as much.”

Jazzy watches from Anguish’s eyes as Chey’s expression turns from surprise and horror to anger and hate. “You’re a murderer.”

**“True,”** Anguish admits, **“but not in the way that you’re thinking, Chey.”**

“How do you know my name?”

Anguish grins. **“We know you.”** Chey frowns.

“Why don’t you tell her who you are, under that creature, under that mask, Dancer?” Levina suggests, smile turning smug. “Maybe then she’ll listen to you.”

Anguish turns to Levina and reaches to grab her, but stops when she feels the cultists’ eyes on her, their bodies tensing. Anguish’s eyes narrow before she shifts into the guise of Jazzy’s spider suit. “Chey, listen to me,” Jazzy says, turning to face her friend. “I know what you’re going through and I didn’t kill Jenny.”

“Sure you didn’t,” Chey scoffs. “What, are you going to tell me that Electro killed her?”

“No,” Jazzy states. “He did.” She points back to Wolff. “I watched him.”

“That’s not possible,” Chey says, eyes now focused on Wolff. “There was only one witness other than you, the murderer.”

“I admit I was there,” Jazzy mumbles, voice low enough for only Chey and Levina to hear. “I admit there was only one witness, but I’m not the killer.”

Chey’s eyes widen. “Jazzy?” she breathes. Levina scowls.

“Yeah.”

“It’s still your fault that she died,” Levina interjects. “Isn’t that right? You told me as much.” She turns to Chey. “I didn’t lie, I never said she killed your friend.”

“Is it your fault?” Chey asks.

Jazzy lowers her head and squeezes her eyes shut. “I could’ve stopped Wolff, I could’ve, but I didn’t, so yes, it’s my fault.”

**‘Let’s kill him,’** Anguish says, the symbiote’s eyes focusing on Wolff.

“Not now,” Jazzy replies. “You’re free to make your own decisions, Chey, but Levina’s running a cult and she doesn’t care about anyone but herself.”

Chey looks between Dancing Spider and Electro, hands coming up to rub at her arms. Her eyes focus on Jazzy’s. “You couldn’t have killed her, and I know if you could go back, you would save her.”

Levina curses and blue sparks fly off her body. “Fine,” she hisses. “Ignore the truth, deny it all you want, but that doesn’t change anything. You still belong to me.” She lifts from the ground, streaks of electricity stretching from her hands and feet to the ground, lighting dead leaves on fire. Anguish forces Jazzy to stumble backward. Chey trips and falls, looking up in amazement at Levina. The circle of cultists stand up, slowing moving closer to their goddess.

Jazzy lifts Chey to her feet. “We have to get out of here, I can’t fight her right now.”

“Why not?”

“I’m really hurt,” Jazzy tells her. “I’ll get you out.” Jazzy wraps her arm around Chey’s waist and leaps from tree to tree as Levina sends a bolt toward her, setting the treetops ablaze.


End file.
